The unpleasant truth about Japan

[LOstSamurai]

Hey,

i wanna open this thread out of two reasons: 1. to tell the people outside Japan who intend to live here some things. 2. To hear the opinion of other foreigners who reside in Japan about it. I am here since 6 month only, so please correct me if i give a totally wrong impression about Japan; and yes, you can call me a smart-___/tenderfoot whatever.

1. Some simple things to consider before you leave your country and join the foreign community here:

- no one will pay you lots of money only because you are a foreigner (i did not expect that before i came here).

- no one will f**k you only because you are a foreigner (to be honest, i DID expect that).

- after a while you will probably hang out with other foreigners complaining about Japan. Japanese people seem to have a strange definition of friendship.

- food is great, but is this a reason to move here?

2. To all the other foreigners here:

- how often do you ask yourself why you came here?

- weighing the pros and cons: was it a good decisions to come here?

- i have now the feeling that it most probably was a stupid idea to come here; just a phase of feeling blue or will it get worse?

[Hijinx]

"No one" is two separate words in case you are also teaching English while feeling blue.

[LOstSamurai]

...and no, i am not teaching english. although all the japanese seem to think that every caucasian must be an english native speaker and ergo an english teacher

[Glenski]

Six months here sounds like the perfect timing for the negative phase of culture shock. Hang in there.

[cutyourhair]

- weighing the pros and cons: was it a good decisions to come here?

Probably not. But, that has not stopped me from doing things in the past.

[Hijinx]

Six months here sounds like the perfect timing for the negative phase of culture shock. Hang in there.

So how long does that phase last? I wish it would go away already.

[fatmike]

Living in Japan is like anything in life, you get out of it what you put into it.

[cutyourhair]

So how long does that phase last? I wish it would go away already.

From a boomer I talked to about over a decade I heard.


















Sadly, that was back home.

[Hijinx]

Living in Japan is like anything in life, you get out of it what you put into it.

Like STDs?

[Hijinx]

From a boomer I talked to about over a decade I heard.


Sadly, that was back home.

I'm 12 years and still find this place very unpleasant.

[cutyourhair]

Like STDs?

No those only come when you put it in 生

[LOstSamurai]

do you have more japanese or more foreign friends here? all the japanese i know work 24 hours a day. or only 20, drink for 2 hours and fall asleep

[Jacque_S]

The unpleasant truth about Japan? You mean there's just supposed to be one?!

[LOstSamurai]

as i am not an english native speaker i dont know whether there is a plural of "truth". actually there should be no plural, that would implement that there is no "real" truth...

[Hijinx]

The unpleasant truth about Japan? You mean there's just supposed to be one?!

Hey, the truth is the truth--deal with it.

[cutyourhair]

The unpleasant truth about Japan? You mean there's just supposed to be one?!

You came here in 94' for right? Feel free to vent and enlighten the rest of us whipper-snappers.

Afterall, that's what this place is for.

[the_pink_tako_yaki]

do you have more japanese or more foreign friends here? all the japanese i know work 24 hours a day. or only 20, drink for 2 hours and fall asleep

I don't know many foreigners in Tokyo. Actually, I knew NONE when I first came here, gradually ended up making a few foreign friends but most friends are Japanese. I'd say the bulk are people who went to the same university as me in America and tracked me down when they heard through the grapevine that I came to Japan. I've become better friends with most of them since coming here even though we can't always meet so often.

Where I lived before, I knew a lot of foreigners, some friends, but many whom I wouldn't really consider a friend.

With Japanese, I think it's hard to make good friends with the people you work with sometimes. But if you find people outside of work who share a common interest, hobby, or experience, you can become really good, long-term friends.

[Nikay]

do you have more japanese or more foreign friends here? all the japanese i know work 24 hours a day. or only 20, drink for 2 hours and fall asleep

That is like the friend I am visiting this May. She works so hard, but she has started up her own company in Tokyo and Kyoto. Ill be there for 3 months, lets see if I can atleast slow her down alittle

[ultraa4]

1. to tell the people outside Japan who intend to live here some things.

Having lived there, its interesting to hear these comments

2. To hear the opinion of other foreigners who reside in Japan about it.

It was great, but the weather was a complaint - too much rain, and the kind that kind of goes under the umbrella (as you ride your bike to the train station)

bad pizza, (esp. the omurice pizza?! - yuk)
the yakiniku pizza was o.k., but I was glad to get american pizza when I got back (although Domino's tasted exactly the same - and KFC wasnt bad)

obnoxious foreigners that bitched all the time - they left within a few months, and I was all too happy to see them go. Theyre "japanese are really from China" expertise and dumb ___ comments in general wasnt missed at all.

[Kisame]

Well, they are right Japanese people are from China as well as Korea(In a sense they are both Chinese because Korean people were Chinese people who migrated to the peninsula). But aside from that there are downsides to Japan but doesn't every country have those? When moving to another country you want that country to have enough of what you like for the rest not to matter.

[Jacque_S]

Hey, the truth is the truth--deal with it.

Which one...the truth or the truth?

You came here in 94' for right? Feel free to vent and enlighten the rest of us whipper-snappers.

Afterall, that's what this place is for.

July 18, 1999 actually. I always tell you whippersnappers the same thing: know what you're coming here for, go all-out for it, & forget the rest. I'll bill you later.

[Hijinx]

Which one...the truth or the truth?

Which one can you handle?

[Jacque_S]

The one I can deal with...wait, make that the one I don't have to deal with.

[Ken44]

- no one will pay you lots of money only because you are a foreigner (i did not expect that before i came here).

I thought when I first came in 1985 I could catch a break in modeling, TV ect. that I couldn`t get in LA. However, I was maybe ten years too late. You pretty much already had to be a professional to make serious money by the time I arrived.



- no one will f**k you only because you are a foreigner (to be honest, i DID expect that).

No, back in the 80`s gaijins were still somewhat a novelty. I had women fuxk me just because they wanted to bang an American.



- after a while you will probably hang out with other foreigners complaining about Japan. Japanese people seem to have a strange definition of friendship.

Not really. I was too busy having fun or so it seemed at the time. Teaching jobs were for the taking. The drama in my life centered around J-women, booze and wasted opportunities.



- food is great, but is this a reason to move here?

Never cared much for J-food.



To all the other foreigners here:

- how often do you ask yourself why you came here?

Never regretted coming to Japan.



- weighing the pros and cons: was it a good decisions to come here?

Oh hell, yeah! (But again let me qualify this saying it was over 20 years ago when I arrived and life was a lot simpler. Easy to find teaching work. Easy to get laid.)



- i have now the feeling that it most probably was a stupid idea to come here; just a phase of feeling blue or will it get worse

Good question. Personally, I very much doubt I would have stayed too long (J-women or not) if I had to put of with the bullshxt many gaijin teachers deal with today.

[the_pink_tako_yaki]

Well, they are right Japanese people are from China as well as Korea(In a sense they are both Chinese because Korean people were Chinese people who migrated to the peninsula).

Modern Japanese and Koreans have Chinese ancestry but they're not simply Chinese people who migrated somewhere else, or else they're probably look the same as Chinese, which they don't. Koreans are more closely related to Mongolians, and Japanese are mixed with Chinese, Korean, Ainu, and also people from islands to the south. Not everyone with an "Asian" face is necessarily a Chinese person living outside of China.

[smork]

do you have more japanese or more foreign friends here? all the japanese i know work 24 hours a day. or only 20, drink for 2 hours and fall asleep

I honestly don't know any Japanese people who work like that. The Japanese I work with are just as lazy as the rest of us heathens.

[The Old Man]

Japan isn't that bad and the Japanese are OK for a culturally and socially developing society.

70 years ago these descendents of the Sun God were dieing like lemmings for Tenno and butchering anyone without the blood line.

Give them a chance, they'll eventually get there. They'll get there quicker than any oother north east Asian nation

[Jacque_S]

Not until they find humanism. Sad that they've been barking up the wrong tree since the Meiji Restoration, thinking all they needed to do was build enuf battleships or cars or schools. I think the biggest mistake of the Meiji Restoration-era elite was to overestimate how far behind the western powers Japan was. Around 1700 there probably wouldn't have been any difference, if anything perhaps in Japan's favor. Of course the industrial changes in the west between 1750 and 1850 were great but probably the biggest change was in attitudes and culture...the Enlightenment and the freeing of the individual which unleashed a great deal of ingenuity. The Japanese being very ingenious and resourceful people makes me think that there are certain aspects of the Enlightenment which would've suited them very well. However, the powers that be have never missed an opportunity to reject humanism, preferring a marginally comfy but socially and culturally stagnant status quo.

[The Old Man]

Good post Jacques and I agree.

[Hijinx]

I think the one thing that would go a long way toward making this country more livable is somehow instilling in these blockheads the skill of "getting the ___ out of the way."

[The Old Man]

I think the one thing that would go a long way toward making this country more livable is somehow instilling in these blockheads the skill of "getting the ___ out of the way."

Yeah, that's amazing in it. It's like a nation of rain people who are totally unaware of the space of others around them.

Another is that when they are at the supermarket checkout, they calculate how much the charge will come to and open their purses, before the cashier tells them how much they owe.
FECK!!! Now that really irritates me.

Or at McD's, they decide what they are gonna order, before they walk to the counter.

[Hijinx]

Yeah, that's amazing in it. It's like a nation of rain people who are totally unaware of the space of others around them.

And they're definitely NOT good drivers.

[Jacque_S]

My own bet is that 1870ish Japan was closer to being "modern" than most of the peripheral areas of the west...outside the major industrial centers of the British isles and their empire (ie, Bombay), the New England states, and Rhine - Ruhr area of northwest Europe. Big cities? Japan had 'em. Industry? Not on a huge scale, but the Japanese had shown themselves adept and building things that others would want (ie, in the 16th century they were making the best guns in the world just 50 years after the Portuguese had introducted them). A system of education? Yes again. Instead of using the ingenuity of its people, the elites decided to turn them into cogs on a wheel. They achieved remarkable economic growth and industrialization in different eras (ie, 1880-1920 and 1950-1990) but what an explosive place this would be (I mean that in a good sense) if everyone were just set free of the feudal bullsh't.

[LOstSamurai]

...i see that u have done ur homework by googleing around for some minutes. i admit it is not uninteresting what u tell us, but what is the point u want to tell referring to the actual situation? that japanese people are victims of their history? kinda philosophic, isn´t it?

[g-raff]

Quality of life in Japan would be greatly improved if they spent their time (retro)fitting houses and apartments with insulation and central heating/air instead of trying to make robots and yet another kind of canned coffee... they all taste the same!

While I'm venting, I'd also like to state that for the most part, j-TV SUCKS!

[g-raff]

I have become fond of corn on my pizza, though.

[Jacque_S]

Why does there need to be a point? If you don't enjoy checking out the occasional go-nowhere cul-de-sac, you'll never figure out Japan. That is Japan.

[account cancelled]

[QUOTE]Well, they are right Japanese people are from China as well as Korea(In a sense they are both Chinese because Korean people were Chinese people who migrated to the peninsula)/QUOTE]

And you're from Africa.

[Fukudad]

Or at McD's, they decide what they are gonna order, before they walk to the counter.

You mean you would rather they decide while they are at the counter and keep people waiting?

[neolithic]

Grapes are sour, indeed!!!!!

It is stupid to ask for butter and jam on both sides of your slice of bread. There seem to be certain type of people here who keep bitching about Japan...........Wages have decreased here drastically, but guys don`t go home......keep parking asses here and complain all the time.

If only.................our attitudes !!!!!!