If you went to Japan, how was your experience?

This is something I had on my mind for almost a year now and thought of sharing it even if it may get me alot of hate (it's the internet after all). It's about how I almost ruined my experience of my own stupidity.

I went to a trip in Asakusa Tokio to see the fireworks festival and some of the temples and shrines there. I never been anywhere out of Romania so I didn't have too much of a plan being pretty inexperienced. I did however have a friend that visited it and gave me some advice so i didn't go completely unprepared. The problem though is that one of his remarks, not necesarily advices stuck with me in a bad way.

I won't go into much detail about what I visited but needles to say it was very impressive. Even just looking at normal buildings impressed me since I'm coming from a country with shit for arhitecture (at least the part where I live in). But getting back to the problem, my friend told me that in Japan the culture is such that they always need to smile and help you even if they secretely hate you, and most of them hate foreigners.

I'm not gonna say that's right or wrong since I don't know, but that stuck with me for the entire trip. This being a new country and me not being experienced meant that I had problems orientating myself so i had to resort at asking people pretty often(in english).

I hated doing that because I could imagine them thinking to themselves "fuck off gajin" while showing a smile on their face. And it wasn't so much that they wouldn't like me, but more that I wouldn't know that. I didn't want to leave Japan thinking they were nice and be wrong.

I eventually learned to stop caring about that and just enjoy what i am seeing but that thing nagged me during the entire trip. I know in some way you could say the same about any country since people have a tendency in public to be nice even if they dislike said person, but being a foreigner there I had the feeling that the hate is universal.

I will accept that it's because of my stupidity ( and given my last thread I bet many will say just that) but still that's something that bothered me and still in some measure.

I am curios to hear about your experiences though if someone that's reading this has been to Japan.

I've been to Japan a few times and it was cool. The people I've met were very nice. I guess it's somewhat true that people in Japan are generally polite by default -- something I had trouble with because I can't speak the formal language well enough that I felt a bit rude in retrospect -- but if there's gonna be someone who hates me I might as well have them smile and help me =]

I went to Japan a few years ago alone. I stayed at Asakusa, that very same place you're talking about - it's beautiful, we loved that central Asakusa temple area. Anyway, with regards to foreigners.... personally, hard to say. I'm from Australia, but I'm an Vietnamese Australia...but I look Japanese, so everyone thought I was Japanese, so I didn't feel that atmosphere of hate towards me. I had heard of it before and kept an eye out for it when I was there, and it's very, very mixed.

One one hand, yes there are some Japanese that hate a lot of foreigners not just because they are foreigners but because they don't often respect the Japanese culture. I feel the Japanese see these Gaijins are people who have come from the outside and don't really try to assimilate into the practices and rituals of Japanese culture. The blame there can fall on both the foreigners and the Japanese who are so uppity about their rituals.

But on the other hand, a lot of Japanese really love gaijins. One, they look different and they're strangely obsessed with that. Secondly, a lot of them love to learn English from them - it's mostly business man, but you will often see someone randomly going up to a foreigner and asking if they could have a bit of a chat to improve their English, I saw a lot of that happening.

Fucking awesome.

I went over there to teach English. I didn't get a job, but it was the one of the best times of my life. Spent 3 months in Tokyo, made friends with a bunch of guys despite our inability to communicate with each other. They showed me around, we went skateboarding and drinking together a few times, they were some of the nicest people I've ever met. I'll never forget sitting on the back of their motorbike riding around Tokyo.

I never got to thank them properly. If anyone is willing to translate it, I'd love to email them.

I don't think you really understand the rationale behind it. Japan is an honor culture, they take respect very, very seriously. Its mutual, they show you respect and they expect it in return. Give anything less and you'll know it from all the death stares. You're a guest in there country and as long as you behave you'll get along fine. Too many foreigners don't understand this and think Japan is some ultimate hippie-Liberal Mecca. Think of the Japanese as polite, sophisticated Nationalists. I like to think many other countries are the same way.

I will probably go again someday to buy some old consoles and weird japanese games. I will have to buy some sort of transformer for the difference in electricity between Japan/US and Europe

WHY AREN'T YOU IN THE HOSPITAL

Because I didn't go. I explained in that thread why before it was locked. Now gimme a break

I live there… the whole respect thing is only a problem if you are Japanese yourself. If you're a gaijin they kinda don't expect you to use the proper language and so on. I was kinda offended by it at first but then just began to embrace it, being a gaijin in Japan is in some ways than being Japanese here. Some people will hate you, others will love you for no reason, it's just something that you have to get used to really.

i want to go to japan. i'd avoid the cats, however.

haha- you just described the entirety of the human experience in one sentence.

I bet if I was bitten by a japanese cat I would turn into something weird and awesome

@alekss:

like a cat food critic?

@mellotronrules said:

@alekss:

like a cat food critic?

Hell yeah. Only in japan though

Haha yeah, I guess I did!

Be wary of ass bandits.

I act nice to a lot of people I dislike so I don't think that's really a big deal.