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Cue up The Vapors, "Turning Japanese"
majanz
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Trip to Tokyo this month, I've been here many times before but never for three whole weeks like this trip. I have a few notes on the place:
1) Women play RPGs over here! Go into a games store and check out the smelly back room filled with folding tables and cheap plastic chairs. There will be women playing RPGs in there! I watched one table of all women playing ‘Call of Cthulhu’ and they were loving it! Couldn't understand a word they were saying, I'm not employed for my ability to speak Japanese, but they were laughing and having a great time! And they were into it! They had all the books spread out, the DM had her screen up over her corner of the table, tons of dice, etc. Anyway, they weren't doing it on a lark - they were into it. And they weren’t the only women in the shop.
2) Japanese men are into some freaky shit - and I am too afraid to ask my local coworkers what the heck is going on because as the father of teenage girls I'm not really certain that I want to know!
And I'm not even talking about the naked XXX cartoons – I’ve known about that stuff for ages. Granted, I was NOT aware that even in respectable looking books stores the top floor (or sometimes the basement) is a cornucopia of naked cartoon girls, cartoon boys, furries, tentacle monsters, regular monsters, and OH MY GOD I’VE NOW SEEN ENOUGH OF THIS TO LAST ME THROUGH THE NEXT DECADE!
But no, what I don't get / don't want to know about / are the shops where they have racks and racks of pictures of Japanese girl's, kind of like 5X6 high school yearbook pictures, and the pictures all have a price tag on them. Imagine going into a Hallmark store, but instead of sappy greeting cards it is all pictures of girls in school uniforms. It just reeks of creepy. Super, super, super creepy. Heck, I can’t understand much of the local lingo, so it could be something totally above board and I would never know it! “Help out this young innocent looking girl by buying her school textbooks!”, but from the look of the store's customers - I'm still thinking it’s something super creepy.
3) Maid Cafes – aka Hooters for Nerds. Okay full disclosure; I haven’t actually been inside one - but I have stopped outside a couple to check out the crowd milling about waiting to go inside (thus I’m a lurker not a participant). Asking my coworkers about the cafes it does strike me as the same sort of scam to separate men from cash as used by Hooters. Attractive perky females in titillating costumes sell overpriced food and drinks to horny males. It’s the oldest scam in the book – I myself have fallen for it hundreds of times.
However my favorite Maid Cafe experience was not the cafes themselves but running across two ‘off duty’ maids in a fast food joint after work. Imagine having a job where you are forced to be un-naturally happy for eight hours a day. Then imagine how after work you would drop the act and revert to a more negative persona to bring some balance back into your life. These two maids sharing a serving of French fries in the Lotteteria had the body language and demeanor of two Hell’s Angels hanging out in a dirty biker bar! It was hilarious!
Oh well, time to get some more Sushi!
And if you know what's up with the stores selling picture of teenage girls - and it is something creepy - I DO NOT NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT!
I love Japan, so I am trying to think happy thoughts.
1) Women play RPGs over here! Go into a games store and check out the smelly back room filled with folding tables and cheap plastic chairs. There will be women playing RPGs in there! I watched one table of all women playing ‘Call of Cthulhu’ and they were loving it! Couldn't understand a word they were saying, I'm not employed for my ability to speak Japanese, but they were laughing and having a great time! And they were into it! They had all the books spread out, the DM had her screen up over her corner of the table, tons of dice, etc. Anyway, they weren't doing it on a lark - they were into it. And they weren’t the only women in the shop.
2) Japanese men are into some freaky shit - and I am too afraid to ask my local coworkers what the heck is going on because as the father of teenage girls I'm not really certain that I want to know!
And I'm not even talking about the naked XXX cartoons – I’ve known about that stuff for ages. Granted, I was NOT aware that even in respectable looking books stores the top floor (or sometimes the basement) is a cornucopia of naked cartoon girls, cartoon boys, furries, tentacle monsters, regular monsters, and OH MY GOD I’VE NOW SEEN ENOUGH OF THIS TO LAST ME THROUGH THE NEXT DECADE!
But no, what I don't get / don't want to know about / are the shops where they have racks and racks of pictures of Japanese girl's, kind of like 5X6 high school yearbook pictures, and the pictures all have a price tag on them. Imagine going into a Hallmark store, but instead of sappy greeting cards it is all pictures of girls in school uniforms. It just reeks of creepy. Super, super, super creepy. Heck, I can’t understand much of the local lingo, so it could be something totally above board and I would never know it! “Help out this young innocent looking girl by buying her school textbooks!”, but from the look of the store's customers - I'm still thinking it’s something super creepy.
3) Maid Cafes – aka Hooters for Nerds. Okay full disclosure; I haven’t actually been inside one - but I have stopped outside a couple to check out the crowd milling about waiting to go inside (thus I’m a lurker not a participant). Asking my coworkers about the cafes it does strike me as the same sort of scam to separate men from cash as used by Hooters. Attractive perky females in titillating costumes sell overpriced food and drinks to horny males. It’s the oldest scam in the book – I myself have fallen for it hundreds of times.
However my favorite Maid Cafe experience was not the cafes themselves but running across two ‘off duty’ maids in a fast food joint after work. Imagine having a job where you are forced to be un-naturally happy for eight hours a day. Then imagine how after work you would drop the act and revert to a more negative persona to bring some balance back into your life. These two maids sharing a serving of French fries in the Lotteteria had the body language and demeanor of two Hell’s Angels hanging out in a dirty biker bar! It was hilarious!
Oh well, time to get some more Sushi!
And if you know what's up with the stores selling picture of teenage girls - and it is something creepy - I DO NOT NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT!
I love Japan, so I am trying to think happy thoughts.
+5
Posts
Luckily all that stuff you mentioned exists pretty much exclusively in Akihabara, so it's pretty easy to get away from the worst corners of that part of the culture.
Hello, Japan.
Thank you for having civilized airports with amenities like shower rooms.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
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The airplane food makes my tummy upset.
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
I very specifically did not use either the A**** word or the M**** word as they are passe in these parts. :biggrin:
And I've been to the Meiji temple, Emperor's compound, etc., so its not all creepy stuff here.
And I've been to the giant Gundam statue. Its was actually disappointing... :bigfrown: They need to give Disney a big pile of money so they can give it the animatronic treatment just like the Hall of Presidents.
ineedmayo.com Eidolon Journal Updated
For japan, i would just go to each sushi restraunt and ramen shop I saw until i ran out of money. I would raid the ramen shops.
Haven't been to the northern areas, though, specifically during winter.
But the creepy pictures of underage girl places are the temples.
Central Japan 4eva.
Kyoto. Nara. Takayama. Sado ga Shima. Osaka.
Dotonbori. Dotonbori, six meals a day.
Because they overspice it so you can taste it
The difference in air pressure does interesting things to the human body
The sad part is because we were under the everwatchful eye of either our commander or the MPs because we were just visiting for some reason or another I knew better not to mess up.
What really the bonkers thing is how often people mess up bad there and at other places.
I saw a TV episode of a cook who had to come up with a menu for an airline company, and that's exactly the thing he's up against - high altitudes reduces the sense of smell and taste. Especially hard when it came to wines.
Oh crap you've already left?
Can you join the yakuza
What about the pocky
they don't make the mint pirouettes anymore though.
So screw those stupid stick cookies.
He was a well thought out and acted troll account
Lord of Lizardman was his real warhammer army very well painted and modified
99% of the stuff you saw was just his act his only flaw was using the same photobucket id to post his pics
If you want to hit the countryside, I suggest something around the Central Japan itinerary I did:
Hotel in Nagano, and stay there for a few days. The city itself is small and explorable in 1-2 days, but quite pretty and relaxed.
From there, a day trip to Matsumoto to see a cool castle (which you can go inside and see a bunch of interesting artifacts, like Edo muskets and shot casting).
Another day trip is Magome, which is a small historical town that requires a bit of work to get to (tain to Nakatsugawa Station, then regular buses to Magome). The town itself is nice, but the main attraction is a reasonably level ~10km hike to the historic town of Tsumago that takes you through the wilderness of Central Japan along an old walking trail used by Edo-era pilgrims. Wonderful forests and creeks, some nice birds, mountains in the distance, it's just wonderful, and this is from someone who always hated hiking. You can set off from Nagano at daybreak and be back in the evening if your pace is good.
Lastly, a little old train can get you from Nagano to Obuse. It's a cute little town that's mostly agricultural, known for its (really nice) apples. Some lovely countryside, and a couple of nice little shrines buried in the hillside forest. Very quiet, with its own charm.
Rural Japan is really nice, and thanks to the train system, you can get pretty remote without much issue. The only place I'd like to visit if not for accessibility problems is central Shikkoku, where you pretty much need a rental car to get around.
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Man like...4 years ago they had chocolate and salted caramel pirouettes and they were basically the best so I bought like 5 tins and ate them all in a week. I really, really like the hazelnut ones with some kahlua.
Yeah you'd really need a rental car to get around a place like Miyagi, the rail system is only so great in the North and most of the best places are hidden up tiny, winding mountain roads that can barely fit a single car.
Yup! All the best parts of Japan are not in Tokyo.
Fucking
izumo taisha.
The coolest.
Also how much would it cost to go to Japan for say... 2 weeks?
I'm not a huge fan of the regular Pocky. but the extra thin ones:
And the extra fat ones:
Are both delicious.
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
I mean, isn't every thread?
"1) girls play games? Whaaaaaaaaaaaat? who ever heard of such a thing?
2) ethnocentrism ahoy!"
like aren't people embarrassed to have that there