I'm Going To Japan

Genma wrote:Well, the wind did wreck my original umbrella. :beaten: I bought another at Shibuya later on for 550Y, quite sturdy and compact!

I didn't explore Shibuya109 much, just did the first few levels and got bored. hehe.. must be the rain that got into the mood.

i went up to the top floor, cause i was curious, and i even went up the next year, mostly to show one of my friends what is in that place, this year, i didn't even bother, its just a clothing store, but with lots of hot girls, other than that, i would conserve time, energy elsewhere, but this year, i walked just infront of the ground level front entrance, and walked right passed it to head towards "Tokyu Hands and HMV" stores. There was a nice simple restarant i ate on the 8th floor of Tokyu Hands, and i ate Curry for about 900Y, for a full course meal including soft drink. The stores there are amazing and i can go on and on, about their high quality products like their cool pens and pencils i got from Tokyu Hands, and their music, HMV store has many levels.

Tokyu Hands is cool but I absolutely love shopping at Don Quijote.

Nice pics, qilver :victory: I'm reliving my Tokyo trip from a couple weeks ago as I went to many similar places you have pictures of. I didn't go up Shibuya109 as I saw it was all female stores but did go up Shibuya109(2) since it was connected to a subway station.
And I just looked at your location and I happened to be in Higashiyama this weekend as well, well kind of cause I went to Kiyomizudera, in the rain, what a nightmare :bonk:

For anyone planning to join the corporate world in Japan, here are some of my personal dos and don'ts.

--It's not a good idea to be a woman.
--It's not a good idea to be a foreigner.
--It's not a good idea to be a maverick.
--It's a very bad idea to be all three.
--When your boss scolds you, no matter how irrational his logic, you must tell him that he is right and you're stupid. Insist on the last point.
--Since rape is illegal, bosses often use its verbal equivalent. When yours rips you apart, always show gratitude for his wisdom and insist that he is underestimating the degree of your own stupidity.
--When a female employee has been verbally raped and is weeping her heart out, don't get the idea of patting her on the back and telling her the boss is a (expletive omitted). If you do, she'll likely rip you apart because: 1) you're not supposed to notice she's weeping and 2) you showed disrespect toward the boss.
--Use western-type humor sparingly. Naïve me once asked my boss why only Office Ladies have to wear uniforms, since they all hate it. "Why don't you make men wear them too?" He stared at me with a disgusted expression as if I had just crawled out the sewers, and yelled, "This is the stupidest idea!"

Genma wrote:Also noticed that some people carry 2 umbrellas.. not sure why?

I have an interesting story about this: I got off work one day when it was pouring rain. I didn't have an umbrella, so this young guy offers me one of his. Since he had more than one I thought he was a company employee in charge of lending umbrellas to absent-minded employees like me. So I thanked him and took off with the umbrella. I noticed he looked a bit miffed. The next day I asked the receptionist where I should return the umbrella. She looked at me funny and when she realized I'm a foreigner, she explained it to me: Guys who are looking for a date bring two umbrellas on rainy days and hand one to a girl who forgot hers. The girl is supposed to ask for the guy's business card so she can return his umbrella. So it goes. Never saw my guy again. I bet he hid every time he saw me walking out.

^itai :patpat: - have similar experiences though :sweat: - although my boss was really nice.

Besides of umbrellas, I wonder why lots of people (well mainly women)carry two handbags? One for lunchboxes, or garbage, and the other for normal stuff - well I never figured ...

shari wrote:

I have an interesting story about this: I got off work one day when it was pouring rain. I didn't have an umbrella, so this young guy offers me one of his. Since he had more than one I thought he was a company employee in charge of lending umbrellas to absent-minded employees like me. So I thanked him and took off with the umbrella. I noticed he looked a bit miffed. The next day I asked the receptionist where I should return the umbrella. She looked at me funny and when she realized I'm a foreigner, she explained it to me: Guys who are looking for a date bring two umbrellas on rainy days and hand one to a girl who forgot hers. The girl is supposed to ask for the guy's business card so she can return his umbrella. So it goes. Never saw my guy again. I bet he hid every time he saw me walking out.

Shari, the rest of what you wrote is quite scary, but this umbrella story is really funny :)

shari wrote:For anyone planning to join the corporate world in Japan, here are some of my personal dos and don'ts.

--It's not a good idea to be a woman.
--It's not a good idea to be a foreigner.
--It's not a good idea to be a maverick.
--It's a very bad idea to be all three.
--When your boss scolds you, no matter how irrational his logic, you must tell him that he is right and you're stupid. Insist on the last point.
--Since rape is illegal, bosses often use its verbal equivalent. When yours rips you apart, always show gratitude for his wisdom and insist that he is underestimating the degree of your own stupidity.
--When a female employee has been verbally raped and is weeping her heart out, don't get the idea of patting her on the back and telling her the boss is a (expletive omitted). If you do, she'll likely rip you apart because: 1) you're not supposed to notice she's weeping and 2) you showed disrespect toward the boss.
--Use western-type humor sparingly. Naïve me once asked my boss why only Office Ladies have to wear uniforms, since they all hate it. "Why don't you make men wear them too?" He stared at me with a disgusted expression as if I had just crawled out the sewers, and yelled, "This is the stupidest idea!"

Scary, not because of how u put it across directly, but that its very likely to be true! Worked in a local Japanese firm before and saw that all the higher management posts were held by Japanese or were at least men.

shari wrote:I have an interesting story about this: I got off work one day when it was pouring rain. I didn't have an umbrella, so this young guy offers me one of his. Since he had more than one I thought he was a company employee in charge of lending umbrellas to absent-minded employees like me. So I thanked him and took off with the umbrella. I noticed he looked a bit miffed. The next day I asked the receptionist where I should return the umbrella. She looked at me funny and when she realized I'm a foreigner, she explained it to me: Guys who are looking for a date bring two umbrellas on rainy days and hand one to a girl who forgot hers. The girl is supposed to ask for the guy's business card so she can return his umbrella. So it goes. Never saw my guy again. I bet he hid every time he saw me walking out.

Interesting! I saw a few ladies carrying 2 umbrellas. Does it mean they had 2 date requests?? :mrgreen:

shari wrote:For anyone planning to join the corporate world in Japan, here are some of my personal dos and don'ts.

--It's not a good idea to be a woman.
--It's not a good idea to be a foreigner.
--It's not a good idea to be a maverick.
--It's a very bad idea to be all three.
--When your boss scolds you, no matter how irrational his logic, you must tell him that he is right and you're stupid. Insist on the last point.
--Since rape is illegal, bosses often use its verbal equivalent. When yours rips you apart, always show gratitude for his wisdom and insist that he is underestimating the degree of your own stupidity.
--When a female employee has been verbally raped and is weeping her heart out, don't get the idea of patting her on the back and telling her the boss is a (expletive omitted). If you do, she'll likely rip you apart because: 1) you're not supposed to notice she's weeping and 2) you showed disrespect toward the boss.
--Use western-type humor sparingly. Naïve me once asked my boss why only Office Ladies have to wear uniforms, since they all hate it. "Why don't you make men wear them too?" He stared at me with a disgusted expression as if I had just crawled out the sewers, and yelled, "This is the stupidest idea!"


I have an interesting story about this: I got off work one day when it was pouring rain. I didn't have an umbrella, so this young guy offers me one of his. Since he had more than one I thought he was a company employee in charge of lending umbrellas to absent-minded employees like me. So I thanked him and took off with the umbrella. I noticed he looked a bit miffed. The next day I asked the receptionist where I should return the umbrella. She looked at me funny and when she realized I'm a foreigner, she explained it to me: Guys who are looking for a date bring two umbrellas on rainy days and hand one to a girl who forgot hers. The girl is supposed to ask for the guy's business card so she can return his umbrella. So it goes. Never saw my guy again. I bet he hid every time he saw me walking out.

The realities that Japan is still driven greatly by a
-male (Japanese) society
-catered to the Japanese Salaried Man, wherever you are in Tokyo and rest of Japan
-how women, and gaijin are secondary citizens
-the media, and everything else is catered to the Japanese male

despite all these shortcomings, as i call them,
I do try to look at the beauty of Japan. I do fully realize that "living" in Japan is a completely different scenario and totally different entirely. I only can speak of the perspective in "visiting" the country of Japan and not at all by living in that foreign country. I tend to romanticize Japan, and what it has to offer, but there are also ugly realities and yes you bring about some excellent points on how they treat even "asian" foreigners and how they look down on "outsiders", despite their good appearance, and polite service. I try to see the good in the Japanese while being fully aware of how they lack in the confidence in speaking, "english" to a foreigner. I do realize that a lot of them or a good amount of them have english grammar and education in school, but maybe it is my narrow minded view of that, that i should expect them to understand me more. But i did try to realize that I was IN their country and should respect that and adapt and speak Japanese in my near pathetic skill level of conversation all broken-Japanese language ability. I think they understood me somewhat and appreciated it that i tried to communicate with them in Japanese.
But the 2 umbrella thing, i guess i didn't notice too much, and perhaps it was a good idea for me to try, and get a date with one of the local Japanese girls....lol

shari wrote:For anyone planning to join the corporate world in Japan, here are some of my personal dos and don'ts.

--It's not a good idea to be a woman.
--It's not a good idea to be a foreigner.
--It's not a good idea to be a maverick.
--It's a very bad idea to be all three.
--When your boss scolds you, no matter how irrational his logic, you must tell him that he is right and you're stupid. Insist on the last point.
--Since rape is illegal, bosses often use its verbal equivalent. When yours rips you apart, always show gratitude for his wisdom and insist that he is underestimating the degree of your own stupidity.
--When a female employee has been verbally raped and is weeping her heart out, don't get the idea of patting her on the back and telling her the boss is a (expletive omitted). If you do, she'll likely rip you apart because: 1) you're not supposed to notice she's weeping and 2) you showed disrespect toward the boss.
--Use western-type humor sparingly. Naïve me once asked my boss why only Office Ladies have to wear uniforms, since they all hate it. "Why don't you make men wear them too?" He stared at me with a disgusted expression as if I had just crawled out the sewers, and yelled, "This is the stupidest idea!"

Not surprised in the least. :sweat:

A woman's role in business is addressed in Top Sales, albeit less melodramatic...

Took my neighbor's kids to an indoor tsuribori (fishing pond) in Sangenjaya. Nothing like fishing for goldfish in a smoke filled shack. Only in Japan. Good fun!

[image][image]

[image][image]

[image][image]

[image][image]

[image][image]

o.O

Did they keep the goldfish after catching them?

I'm still midway thru the photos, about 4000 of it. :sweat:

But here's some to start with anyway! Using thumbnails to save those on slow connections.

# There's Genma, bringing along his Penguin friend
[image]

# Funky moving soba on a giant bowl at Ueno
[image]

# View at Shiodome
[image]

# SMAP on a Pocari Sweat advert. Fast Supply, Keep Long! Whatever that means...
[image]

# Moat around the imperial palace in Tokyo
[image]

# Outside the imperial palace - electrical point???
[image]

# Sunset from Tokyo Tower
[image]

# Busiest road intersection I could find from the top of the tower
[image]

# Genma enjoys the scenery atop the tower with girlfriend
[image]

# Please do not rush into the train. How I wish that sign would be useful in Singapore...
[image]

Thats all from day 1 & 2. More to come~~!

Nice pics Genma :applaud: I'm glad we got to see your girlfriend. (although I wonder what your kids are going to look like :dotdotdot: )

Really good photos. :applaud: I particularly like the ones with the sunset and night lights. Thanks for sharing. :)

Genma wrote:# Funky moving soba on a giant bowl at Ueno
[image]

Ah, I was recently there. My friends were incredibly amazed by it :sweat: Ueno is an interesting place at night. Full of drunk salarymen, lol.

Genma wrote:o.O

Did they keep the goldfish after catching them?

No, it was a catch and release day since we were going to the Tokyo Dome for a ballgame afterward.

Btw, nice pics of yours! :metaldevil: What equipment are you using?

gaijinmark wrote:Nice pics Genma :applaud: I'm glad we got to see your girlfriend. (although I wonder what your kids are going to look like :dotdotdot: )

Well, still black and white I suppose?? :naughty:

xploring wrote:Really good photos. :applaud: I particularly like the ones with the sunset and night lights. Thanks for sharing. :)

Thanks! :) I liked the view, just didn't like the queues up there. Had to queue to go up, queue to queue to go higher, and queue again to go down. :banghead:

atskv9 wrote:Ah, I was recently there. My friends were incredibly amazed by it :sweat: Ueno is an interesting place at night. Full of drunk salarymen, lol.

Well, it did attract the attention of many. Its fun watching the Japanese girls gawking and gushing over it while trying a tug at the soba.

Takoyama wrote:Btw, nice pics of yours! :metaldevil: What equipment are you using?

Just a D80 with kit lens, 50mm and an ultra wide angle to play with. Nothing too fancy. I usually took more pictures of bugs than humans+scenery combined! :metaldevil:

Day 3, started the day at the Tsukiji Fish Market with a failed attempt to get fresh sashimi/sushi. :P Moved down to Odaiba and then back to Sensouji Temple.

# I'm gonna get myself one of them buggies!
[image]

# There's a traffic controller for the buggies as well
[image]

# Hiding behind the counter to take orders and handle the moolah
[image]

# Taking aim to cut the tuna
[image]

# Takes 2 to cut a tuna
[image]

# Takomania
[image]

# Is the sashimi here that different? The crowd is the same at every stall!
[image]

# Souvenir shop asking you to buy gifts for your parents
[image]

# Kiddo sulking at a corner and making sure his dad sees him
[image]

# Held this menu over lunch, somehow I'm a poetic genius!
[image]

# Statue of Liberty Lite with Fuji-TV building in the background
[image]

# Rows of food stalls up to Sensouji Temple
[image]

# Similar view with me messing up the colors
[image]

# Giant Shoe - mess with it and it'll step on u
[image]

Thats all for day 3, hope u enjoy them. :)

I wonder if someone can help me out. I'm wondering if I can find eateries or places (in Tokyo/Kyoto) where they serve plain grilled fish or plain grilled poultry. (I know in department stores they sell grilled fish marinated heavily in some stuff that's probably high in sugar and yakitori is not different.) I'll be going with someone with a restricted diet. =_=

The photos of the fish market are interesting. :) Thanks again.

Some of the latest pics didn't show (last 2 and last 5-7), or maybe it's just me.