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bits and pieces
Sep. 11th, 2007 01:41 pmFirst short note first: I've scrolled back through some of my friendslist, but it's kind of a lot. If it's important, please point me at it. Thanks.
Second short note second: I'm not going to write up one big trip report or anything, I'll post a few things as I think of them. Here's one now!
Okay, so, I really, really, really liked Japan.
Really. And not in just that Engrish kind of way either. (Tho' I have to admit, being in the sake shop and seeing the process of making sake described as involving a "fermentation airplane"? Pretty damn funny. As in, I couldn't take a picture of it, because I had to flee the store, because I couldn't stop laughing. I'm laughing again now. But I digress.)
I mean, there are a bunch of reasons. Sure, there's the way that the kinds of things I care about a lot all work really, really well. There's the outstanding transportation system, there's the emphasis on quality over quantity, there's the most excellent food and creature comforts; there's the special things like wandering through akihabara and singing along with Japanese fen to anime theme songs and all that. But there's also... just being nice.
I mean, sure, I got the point-and-"oh look gaijin" thing once, so we were far enough out for that on some of our wanderings. But honestly? Things were okay. I got so little flak about it that it barely even registered. And the whole culture-of-politeness thing combined with the complete lack of overt hate in my face every day? Pretty fucking awesome.
So, yeah. I ♥♥♥ Japan.
It's funny because if you understand Japanese even a little you pick up on a lot of stuff you otherwise wouldn't. On the second half of the trip - the half when I wasn't posting pictures anymore, I couldn't get net access - we were with a tour group.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
annathepiper and spazzkat and I would break off from the Thundering Hoarde whenever we could and go off on our own. We were wandering around separately in one of the gardens when this pair of Japanese women walked by going the other way speculating about my ancestry, deciding that I was definitely at least part asian, but they weren't getting more specific than that. I only knew that because my Japanese was good enough that I could understand what they were saying.
Another day, we were in this elevator and a bunch of young Japanese girls - also tourists, but in-country - got on, and I did the right things, like you do, which is pretty easy. (Despite warnings to the contrary, picking up the social cues there was really pretty easy for me, and watching the tour group be, well, a tour group, was often very painful.) Then this old couple got on - also tourists, also Japanese - and they were drunk, and the guy cheered sake and then asked for his floor the wrong way because he was too drunk to get out more than かんぱい!! and numbers. After he got off on his floor, as soon as the doors closed, all the girls giggled explosively, and one asked "Japanese or foreigner?" and all the other girls chirped off "foreigner" (all this in Japanese) as they got off the elevator one floor later, giggling. The wait-what? part of this, of course, being that the drunken couple were in fact Japanese and we were the gaijin, but apparently, despite this, we passed muster, and they did not. ^_^
Actually, my extremely-limited language skills held up much better in some ways than I'd expected. We had bus ticket confusion in the airport upon landing; I was able to book passage from the airport to the hotel nearest ours on the shuttle-bus run purely in Japanese. Anna wanted to buy a couple of books by Japanese author in English translation at the big Kinokuniya in Tokyo, but they didn't have any copies; I was able to ask whether I could order them at the smaller Kinokuniya in Seattle, and understood the answer when she told me they couldn't, because the distribution system was different between the domestic and foreign branches; when we hit an internet booth cafe in Kyoto, I was able to find out that they were booked through the entire night and wouldn't have anything open until around 9:30 the next morning. So that was neat, even if I got my counters wrong sometimes. (In particular, I asked for a copy of the Timely Times at convention and got one, and realised almost immediately after that I apparently had thought it was some sort of animal, or at least alive, because of the counter I'd used. Oops. がいじんのばか、ね。)
I have nearly 2700 photographs. More than 25% of my entire digital library. I am no idea how to sort this stuff. So here's a link to an avi of what it's like to ride a cable car up a mountain in a monsoon, and here's a picture of the entrance to Namjatown, a Tokyo Sunshine City indoor theme park dedicated to food.
Namjatown, featuring Goyza Stadium
Second short note second: I'm not going to write up one big trip report or anything, I'll post a few things as I think of them. Here's one now!
Okay, so, I really, really, really liked Japan.
Really. And not in just that Engrish kind of way either. (Tho' I have to admit, being in the sake shop and seeing the process of making sake described as involving a "fermentation airplane"? Pretty damn funny. As in, I couldn't take a picture of it, because I had to flee the store, because I couldn't stop laughing. I'm laughing again now. But I digress.)
I mean, there are a bunch of reasons. Sure, there's the way that the kinds of things I care about a lot all work really, really well. There's the outstanding transportation system, there's the emphasis on quality over quantity, there's the most excellent food and creature comforts; there's the special things like wandering through akihabara and singing along with Japanese fen to anime theme songs and all that. But there's also... just being nice.
I mean, sure, I got the point-and-"oh look gaijin" thing once, so we were far enough out for that on some of our wanderings. But honestly? Things were okay. I got so little flak about it that it barely even registered. And the whole culture-of-politeness thing combined with the complete lack of overt hate in my face every day? Pretty fucking awesome.
So, yeah. I ♥♥♥ Japan.
It's funny because if you understand Japanese even a little you pick up on a lot of stuff you otherwise wouldn't. On the second half of the trip - the half when I wasn't posting pictures anymore, I couldn't get net access - we were with a tour group.
annathepiper and spazzkat and I would break off from the Thundering Hoarde whenever we could and go off on our own. We were wandering around separately in one of the gardens when this pair of Japanese women walked by going the other way speculating about my ancestry, deciding that I was definitely at least part asian, but they weren't getting more specific than that. I only knew that because my Japanese was good enough that I could understand what they were saying.Another day, we were in this elevator and a bunch of young Japanese girls - also tourists, but in-country - got on, and I did the right things, like you do, which is pretty easy. (Despite warnings to the contrary, picking up the social cues there was really pretty easy for me, and watching the tour group be, well, a tour group, was often very painful.) Then this old couple got on - also tourists, also Japanese - and they were drunk, and the guy cheered sake and then asked for his floor the wrong way because he was too drunk to get out more than かんぱい!! and numbers. After he got off on his floor, as soon as the doors closed, all the girls giggled explosively, and one asked "Japanese or foreigner?" and all the other girls chirped off "foreigner" (all this in Japanese) as they got off the elevator one floor later, giggling. The wait-what? part of this, of course, being that the drunken couple were in fact Japanese and we were the gaijin, but apparently, despite this, we passed muster, and they did not. ^_^
Actually, my extremely-limited language skills held up much better in some ways than I'd expected. We had bus ticket confusion in the airport upon landing; I was able to book passage from the airport to the hotel nearest ours on the shuttle-bus run purely in Japanese. Anna wanted to buy a couple of books by Japanese author in English translation at the big Kinokuniya in Tokyo, but they didn't have any copies; I was able to ask whether I could order them at the smaller Kinokuniya in Seattle, and understood the answer when she told me they couldn't, because the distribution system was different between the domestic and foreign branches; when we hit an internet booth cafe in Kyoto, I was able to find out that they were booked through the entire night and wouldn't have anything open until around 9:30 the next morning. So that was neat, even if I got my counters wrong sometimes. (In particular, I asked for a copy of the Timely Times at convention and got one, and realised almost immediately after that I apparently had thought it was some sort of animal, or at least alive, because of the counter I'd used. Oops. がいじんのばか、ね。)
I have nearly 2700 photographs. More than 25% of my entire digital library. I am no idea how to sort this stuff. So here's a link to an avi of what it's like to ride a cable car up a mountain in a monsoon, and here's a picture of the entrance to Namjatown, a Tokyo Sunshine City indoor theme park dedicated to food.
Namjatown, featuring Goyza Stadium
