Life in Japan, part 1

Life in Japan, part 1 (Following riverman's Kongo example, allthough
not as well written)

Tokyo is hot, exciting, good food and expensive.

Arrived at Narita airport on Saturday, a little more than a week ago.
Ever since, the weather has been unkind to a fair skinned northerner,
used to a hell lot colder weather this time of year, with degrees
ranging in the high 20's and low 30's (Celsius)

So, after a first clash with the fact that very few Japanese speak
English and the fact that this city is so big that even the taxi
drivers can't be expected to know their way around all of it, I
finally arrived at my hotel in Jiyugaoka. I figured that I'd start
out with a hotel and then find an apartment for myself at a later
stage. My working companions from Sweden were already in Tokyo, the
Project Manager (that's me) arriving last go figure, and I met up
with the senior tester Juha (Swedish, Finnish parents). This, the
first, week Juha has been kind enough to show me around, he knows the
place from several years of working here, and I'm know starting to
feel a bit more confident, Arigato gozaimasu!

This would be such a great place to be, in so many ways, weren't it
for the language difficulties. Well, what to do? If the Japanese
won't speak English I guess I have to learn a little Japanese. With
this in mind I set out to find a book store with English - Japanese
tutorials and perhaps some English literature, easier said than done. I
must have tried a dozen or so book stores without finding any with an
international books shelf. Then one evening we decided to go for some
Kaiten sushi, the type of restaurants where the sushi plates are
transported and presented on a small conveyor belt, and suddenly there
was a book stand on the side of the street with hundreds of titles in
English. So now I'm reading, apart from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, a
book called Japanese for busy people.

Work is running smoothly, thank god, and I do find a little time to do
other things. For those that haven't heard and wonder what the hell I'm
doing in Japan, I'm here as the PM for a group verifying new
functioinallity called MNP (Mobile Number Portability, Japanese
goverment directive) in the Japanese mobile phone network, and will
stay here until late January. My main occupation besides work has been
to orientate myself with the Metro and other railways, without which it
would be impossible to get around in this place.

So where does one go in Tokyo? I would say that there is so much to be
seen that I'm not the person to tell you about it. However, I can
tell you about some of the places I've visited so far.

Akihabara; went there to have a look at the famous suburb where you can
find anything that has to do with electronics. I figure that I
eventually will buy a new digital camera from one of those stores. It
is cheaper there than at home, not by much but still, and there's no
brand of camera unaccounted for. Actually, that goes for HiFi,
computers and mobile phones to.

Ginza; the most exclusive, and expensive, part of town there is. I went
there because I had heard of some second hand Nikon stores, and I must
say that the two I found were like a dream. Unexpectedly cheap, first
class lenses from the floor to the roof. I will be spending some
substantial amount of money there before going home.

Shibuya; this is where you go to find whatever you need regarding
clothes, shoes or music. Of course the Japanese aren't all that big
and I'm six foot five, so finding the sizes that I need is another
issue all together. There's a crossroad just outside of the Shibuya
station that, when the pedestrian signs turn green, absolutely amazes
me with thousands of people (a foot shorter than me) moving around.
From my view it looks like an ocean of heads in a chaotic movement.
There's one more thing in Shibuya which constitutes my most important
finding so far, more on that later.

Roppongi; the "pink light" district, or at least that was what
I've been told. To me it is a strange mixture of "red light" on
the one hand but with really nice bars and restaurants for the major
part. We found a bar to which I'm definitely going back during my
stay. They were showing English soccer on the TV and playing good music
in the background, all in all a good place to relax, have a beer and
socialize. We did also visit another bar with a dance floor, where I
was asked, on no less than three occasions in one evening, whether or
not I was married ;-). There seems to be more than one woman hunting
for European and American men in this district and it is almost
ridiculous how many offers and how much attention one gets in one
night. I was, in the end wishing it had been more difficult, more of a
challenge. On a more funny note, some of them asked to see my mobile
phone. I asked my friend about it and he said it was their way to
determine whether I was financially solid or not. It was such an absurd
notion that I, with a couple of beers down the throat, started laughing
uncontrollably and almost unstoppably. BTW, I did go home
alone..............

Regarding the women, they are absolutely stunning! There are so many
good looking women here that you every night end up with a stiff neck
from turning your head to much ;-). And, they don't mind that
you're looking, it is more viewed as a compliment.

The food, as I mentioned, is very good and I'm trying to sample new
dishes every night. Sushi, Tonkatsu, Tempura, Yakitori, Chabu chabu,
Sukiyaki, Ramen and so on. With cooking as a major hobby, next to fly
fishing and hunting, this is paradise. There's supposed to be a place
here in Tokyo that specialises on cooking accessories and knives,
that's the next place I'm going to. Oh, and I found a decent wine
shop, a bit expensive but none the less.

Now the important stuff. I have so far located two fishing gear shops,
the one I found first "Jumbo fishing store" was not all that
exciting but the second one was all the more so. Not far from the south
entrance of Shibuya station there's a shop called "Sansui fishing
equipment store". This store wasn't by far the biggest one I've
ever visited but it is by far the most well sorted one. There was
almost every famous brand of fishing gear in the world to be found in
that store. Almost all the high quality Scandinavian brands and
likewise the high quality American and English brands. Loop, Guideline,
Vision, Bo Molin, Ari't Hart, Sage, Loomis, Ross, Bauer, Simms,
Orvis, Hardy...........I could go on for a long time. I was so
fascinated with that store that I definitely have to go back, more than
once I might add. The store has been around since 1902 no less and they
sold a lot of traditionally oriented fly fishing gear as well as the
new stuff. I saw among other things some really nice looking split cane
rods ranging from 150.000 yen to 450.000 yen. I bought a couple of
flies, a fly box and a book on New Zeeland fishing as I'm planning on
ending my stay in Asia with a trip down there to do some serious
fishing together with riverman (Myron Buck).

Anyway, thought I'd drop a few lines.

/Roger Ohlund

On 19 Sep 2005 01:16:06 -0700, wrote:

This would be such a great place to be, in so many ways, weren't it
for the language difficulties. Well, what to do? If the Japanese
won't speak English I guess I have to learn a little Japanese. With
this in mind I set out to find a book store with English - Japanese
tutorials and perhaps some English literature, easier said than done. I
must have tried a dozen or so book stores without finding any with an
international books shelf.

Roger, most of the big 'western style' hotels have bookshops in them with
language help books. I'd also recommend getting a bilingual atlas of Tokyo and
of Japan. Then you can point to where you want to go and the Japanese can/will
usually help you find your way. Have one someone write down the address of your
hotel and office in Japanese on a card and carry it around with you so if you
get lost you can just show it to a cab driver to get back (albeit expensively).
Actually, most younger (40 and under) Japanese do speak English but are too shy
to do so in public or to strangers. After a few beers they loosen up and speak
English at least as good as anyone from the southern US. g
--
Charlie...
http://www.chocphoto.com

Actually, most younger (40 and under) Japanese do speak English but are
too shy
to do so in public or to strangers. After a few beers they loosen up and
speak
English at least as good as anyone from the southern US. g

Which means you'll still not be able to understand them.

--
Frank Reid
Euthanize to respond

On 9/19/05 9:02 AM, in article , "Frank
Reid" wrote:

Actually, most younger (40 and under) Japanese do speak English but are
too shy
to do so in public or to strangers. After a few beers they loosen up and
speak
English at least as good as anyone from the southern US. g

Which means you'll still not be able to understand them.

Oh, I don't know. Wayne K. called me last week and I understood a good
portion of what he said. At least I *think* I did... Decoder ring must
have been working.

B

Frank Reid wrote:

Actually, most younger (40 and under) Japanese do speak English but are
too shy
to do so in public or to strangers. After a few beers they loosen up and
speak
English at least as good as anyone from the southern US. g


Which means you'll still not be able to understand them.


....and we prefer it so... of course, if y'all would simply quit moving
south. g

jeff (in *north* carolina)

Charlie Choc wrote:
On 19 Sep 2005 01:16:06 -0700, wrote:

This would be such a great place to be, in so many ways, weren't it
for the language difficulties. Well, what to do? If the Japanese
won't speak English I guess I have to learn a little Japanese. With
this in mind I set out to find a book store with English - Japanese
tutorials and perhaps some English literature, easier said than done. I
must have tried a dozen or so book stores without finding any with an
international books shelf.

Roger, most of the big 'western style' hotels have bookshops in them with
language help books. I'd also recommend getting a bilingual atlas of Tokyo and
of Japan. Then you can point to where you want to go and the Japanese can/will
usually help you find your way. Have one someone write down the address of your
hotel and office in Japanese on a card and carry it around with you so if you
get lost you can just show it to a cab driver to get back (albeit expensively).
Actually, most younger (40 and under) Japanese do speak English but are too shy
to do so in public or to strangers. After a few beers they loosen up and speak
English at least as good as anyone from the southern US. g

Charlie,

I did finally find an excellent international book shop in Shibuya. The
seventh floor of Tower records is all "Books in English".
You and I must have met different Japanese people, the once I've met
couldn't speak English worth a damn, with or without beer and
regardless of age.
Actually this is not true, there are some at the Ericsson AB office
that I meet every day and that are very good at English.
Anyway, it isn't a real big problem since the Japanese must be among
the most service minded people I've ever met. All that can happen when
trying to communicate in Japanese is that I make a fool of myself, and
since this is more or less expected of me, being a Gaijin and all, I'm
babbling away.

/Roger

Visit http://www.imsoc.se/angler/ for info on fly fishing in the
northern part of Sweden, Lapland

snip discussion of Anglo-Japanese discussion

Cool thing about all this is we have the re-emergence, in one day, of
Charlie Choc and Roger Ohlund! Looking forward to more reports from the
field from both of you!

Bill

Actually, most younger (40 and under) Japanese do speak English.....

English has been taught in Japanese public schools for many years,
probably since shortly after WW II.

Way back in the '60s and '70s, a bunch of Japanese teachers of English
in the schools came to Penn State every summer (a different bunch
every summer) for a crash course in English. They badly needed it.

Each teacher was "adopted" by a local family; we adopted one for about
seven years. It was to enable them to learn more about America, and
practice their English outside the classroom. We enjoyed it, and
learned a lot about Japan. But even when they left, after about two
months, their English was pretty damn bad.

We still get Christmas cards from most of them, and their English is
STILL bad.

That may help explain why their students are reluctant to speak
English to strangers until they've absorbed a few beers.

vince
Who has often wondered if our public-school foreign-language teachers
are equally bad.

Vince,

I just got it explained by one of the employees here at the Ericsson
office. The way they teach English here is through reading books and
studying grammar with little or no training in how to actually speak
English. This also explains why a substantial ammount of the
documenattion I have read, written by Japanese engineers, is
significantly better than their spoken English.
To be completely honest though, their English excels compared to my
Japanese ;-(

/Roger

wrote in message
ups.com...

. The store has been around since 1902 no less and they
sold a lot of traditionally oriented fly fishing gear as well as the
new stuff. I saw among other things some really nice looking split cane
rods ranging from 150.000 yen to 450.000 yen.

A significant number of the higher priced collectible cane rods are finding
their way to Japan.

I bought a couple of
flies, a fly box and a book on New Zeeland fishing as I'm planning on
ending my stay in Asia with a trip down there to do some serious
fishing together with riverman (Myron Buck).

In years back when the federation of fly fisher's newsletter was more like a
newspaper than a magazine, there was a japanese member who wrote of trout
fishing in Japan. He had a way of describing the scenery which sounded
pretty cool. You might want to check it out.