The Party

It is. Once you get past the language barrier, it’s really a great place. Especially if you can get into Tokyo on any regular basis, which I’m lucky enough to be able to do. There’s no end to the new things you can do over here.

And the food’s great too! :smiley:

[quote=“Stardog Champion”]
It is. Once you get past the language barrier, it’s really a great place. Especially if you can get into Tokyo on any regular basis, which I’m lucky enough to be able to do. There’s no end to the new things you can do over here.

And the food’s great too! :smiley:[/quote]

I’m sure it is. And I imagine you get to see all kinds of cool electronic gadgets that dont make it to the North American market too. But I gotta ask, what does your .sig mean?

[quote=“VMS”]

[quote=“Stardog Champion”]
It is. Once you get past the language barrier, it’s really a great place. Especially if you can get into Tokyo on any regular basis, which I’m lucky enough to be able to do. There’s no end to the new things you can do over here.

And the food’s great too! :smiley:[/quote]

I’m sure it is. And I imagine you get to see all kinds of cool electronic gadgets that dont make it to the North American market too. But I gotta ask, what does your .sig mean?[/quote]

Oh yeah. In fact, I went to the Tokyo Game Show last year and go to see the Sony PSP before it even hit the market. The big electronics district in Tokyo is only about 45 minutes by train from where I live. They’ve got all kinds of great things like super-small laptops, digital cameras with huge megapixel capacity, and awesome plasma screen TVs.

As for my sig, the litearal translation is “if you don’t go into a tiger’s den, you’ll never catch a tiger cub.” In other words, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Crazy Mexicans and their glass candy.

I went to Japan in 1994 as part of an exchange program. Spent 2 weeks in the city of Shuzenji (if I spelt it right, I deserve a cookie).

Got off the plane, went through the airport, walked out the front door and almost staggered under the weight of the humidity. I had wondered why I saw a face-towel booth in the airport - now I knew.

Stayed with a fairly well-off family in the mountains (they had a few acres, government intel jobs I think) - and seeing the bunched housing in Tokyo when we arrived reminded me how many people were squeezed onto those tiny islands. Haha - I just remembered the “stacked” tee-off cages on the golf courses I drove by. Stacked cages about four stories high, each floor having a little tee and space to tee-off from. Hilarious.

Being 6’, it was quite something to be standing on the Bullet Train platform in Tokyo - everyone was a good foot shorter than me. It was very surreal.

The culture shock didn’t really hit me until an odd moment - my first trip to a Japanese bathoom. I had read all the great sounding stories about “holes in the ground” and was prepared for the worst - and then I realized that my well-off hosts had a frickin’ technological wonder for a toilet.

Damn thing had buttons all over it. Being the curious beast that I am, I sat down and began to look at all the switches and buttons. Unfortunately, the button I tried out first activated the bidet. My host family never let me live down that scream.

I can’t believe that was over 10 years ago. Wow.

Yeah, that humidity is often a big shock for most people. I remember when my sister came to visit me in my first year. She came in mid-August, which I now know is the absolute WORST time to come to Japan if you’re not from someplace equally humid.

The toilets are also quite something too. Some of them really are the “hole in the ground” type, but those are mostly at train stations and other public buildings where they have to save money and/or space. The really high-tech ones have an adjustable bidet spout, as well as a seat heater for the toilet. It’s really quite something to see.

Something else that’s quite interesting is that the water faucets in many restaurant lavatories are automatic–you just put your hands below the spout and warm water starts flowing automatically. Quite nice to say the least.

So how did you find living with a Japanese family? Did you manage to learn a bit of the language by the end of your stay?

Is it true that in japan they are replacing Ronald Mc Donald with some hot chick now?

Are you talking about this chick?
http://210.175.5.231/McDonalds/tmcg/tmcg_woman_b.wmv

That’s just silly looking…it seems like they are trying to sell make up.

Funny thing: this is the first time I’ve ever seen that commercial. Then again, I don’t really watch a lot of TV these days anyway.

But no, they still have Ronald McDonald over here. McDonald’s is actually pretty popular. It’s really the only big fast food chain in Japan, and they’re everywhere.