The Japan Trip Resource Thread!

[Darwock]

CELTA is a lot better, but it's also a lot harder to get, and ultimately it won't make much difference except if you want to work for the British Council (the only employer in Japan I have ever encountered that requires it, and their jobs aren't worth shouting about). It will always make your CV look better than other candidates that don't have it, but that's about all.

[DeathAdder]

Most of the jobs I have had have had CELTA or equivalent as a requirement, and one or two of the others have paid a little extra to those who have it - not a lot, but probably enough to pay for the course after a year of working for them.

That said, as Darwock posted, lots of jobs don't require it.

[Dogg Thang]

I don't have a trip question but thought posting here might reach some of the members in Japan - if not, I'll post a thread. I have a research question: what are the main or top preschool television shows in Japan? I'm talking mainly the 2-5 age generally so the Japanese equivalents of Dora the Explorer or Peppa Pig. What do young Japanese kids watch?

Google leads me to tons of resources about shows for older kids but not much about younger kids except for one thread on another board where someone asked a similar question but I'm just not sure how accurate the suggestions are. If I knew Japanese, it would probably be an easy topic to search for but resources are thin on the ground in English.

So anyone know what Japanese channels are putting out for the younger kids?

[Darwock]

Anpanman. Hana-gappa. Youkai Watch. Tokyuunjaa, Kyouryuunjaa and all the naninani-jaa 'power ranger' derivatives. Kamen Rider. Precure Five (for girls). There's loads but those are the first to come to mind.

First two are pretty much preschool, the latter are kindergarten age stuff (3-6)

[Dogg Thang]

Thanks Darwock, I really appreciate that. I'm having trouble finding the second one on Google. Is there a Japanese character version of the name I might search for?

[Darwock]

Apparently I misheard when my daughter was watching it and it is hana-kappa... anyway you can find it with はなかっぱ.

Other things that are very popular are the characters on a show called 'okaasan to issho' (together with mother) which is like a jackanory type deal with human presenters that sing and dance alongside characters in big suits. They do a stage show that I had the privilege of attending last year. You can search for わんわん (wan-wan), コッシー (kosshi), サボさん (sabo-san), and it should pop up.

[Dogg Thang]

Awesome, thanks. Exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for. Hanna-kappa looks gorgeous.

[Anpanman]

Daughter loved Wan-Wan, it's a great show and puts a lot of our children's TV output to shame, we have a few of the DVD's including the live shows which look excellent.
Anpanman got loads of attention too.

She's also into Precure though I don't think she's on the latest one as she's usually doing something when it's on, I put the Doki Doki series on her tablet and I still think she's going through them.

[KusoGaki]

http://www.liberty-kaitori.com/map.html

Not sure if this is of interest to anyone but they recently renovated one of the Liberty stores (5号店 on the map) in Akiba, and now the second floor is dedicated to games (mostly retro). Not exactly amazing in there, but reasonably priced and quite a lot of stuff.

[Yakumo]

Still crap compared to the mid to late 90's. Then you had stores with a floor dedicated to one or two machines only! Ground floor would be new releases, then you'd have the 1st floor for PSX, then Saturn, Then Neo Geo with maybe PC Engine, then Mega Drive and SFC floor finishing with a floor of handhelds. Yep, that was when it was a dreamland for gamers and not some pervert anime otaku seedy dump which it has become. Manga Soko where I go in my videos has more stuff than anywhere in Akihabara these days. Sad when I remember how cool Akihabara once was.

[Anpanman]

I'd agree, first went in 94 and was superb. I remember the market stall area where blokes would specialise in say one type of computer component like fans or some such.

Others might sell different coloured battery covers for Game Boys etc.

[112]

So i am FINALLY making my trip to Tokyo, Japan in December this year... I know that this thread covers more or less everything I would need, but I have a slight feeling that some of the stuff may or may not be out of date now.

I am only going to be there for a week, and I am planning on doing excursions which will hopefully show me some of the culture, history and entertainment, Tokyo and its surrounding area has to offer.

One of the things I am planning to do is to go retro and current gen, game shopping throughout my trip. As I will be travelling with others (who are not really gaming enthused) I have come to the conclusion that I just don't have the time to go price comparing for games.

As I will be staying in the Shibuya area - am i right in thinking that I should just head to the Akihabara district and raid whatever gaming stores I can find? As a big Biohazard fan, I wanted to visit the Biohazard themed restaurant whilst i am there (i have read it is a terrible place for dining, but i just want to visit it for the experience) to see what merchandise I can pick up,

I am also a fan of Japanese branded clothing amongst other fashion types stuff. Where would be the best area to go visit for stuff like this?

I've done a bit of reading and fortunately, Tokyo has a great infrastructure for public transport, so I should be fine getting around, but figuring out how to use the kiosks etc might prove difficult to a none native speaker or reader... How friendly / helpful are the Japanese to English speaking visitors?

I'd really appreciate any helpful tips anyone on here can offer up, I understand that some of you may be repeating yourselves for the umpteenth time on this thread, when someone decides to go the Japan for the first time... but as my time there is limited on this trip, I just want to get the most out of the short experience.

I have a couple of acquaintances in Tokyo, but I can't rely on them for every eventuality whilst I am there. Thanks and I look forward to any replies!

112

[KusoGaki]

I think they sell a lot of brand stuff in Shibuya, not sure which as I'm not really into brands but I know they have a BAPE store there somewhere.
There's also a Bookoff there which sells a few retro games, (mostly PS2 and a few shelves of Famicom and SFC) and a Mandarake across the road from that. (Not much games here either but it's nice to have a look around.)

The ticket machines for trains have an English language option.
If you're not traveling here with the JR Pass, then the easiest thing to do is to probably to get a SUICA card and then you don't have to worry about figuring out how much your ticket costs and going to the machine every time.

[ETC]

So i am FINALLY making my trip to Tokyo, Japan in December this year... I know that this thread covers more or less everything I would need, but I have a slight feeling that some of the stuff may or may not be out of date now.

I am only going to be there for a week, and I am planning on doing excursions which will hopefully show me some of the culture, history and entertainment, Tokyo and its surrounding area has to offer.

One of the things I am planning to do is to go retro and current gen, game shopping throughout my trip. As I will be travelling with others (who are not really gaming enthused) I have come to the conclusion that I just don't have the time to go price comparing for games.

As I will be staying in the Shibuya area - am i right in thinking that I should just head to the Akihabara district and raid whatever gaming stores I can find? As a big Biohazard fan, I wanted to visit the Biohazard themed restaurant whilst i am there (i have read it is a terrible place for dining, but i just want to visit it for the experience) to see what merchandise I can pick up,

I am also a fan of Japanese branded clothing amongst other fashion types stuff. Where would be the best area to go visit for stuff like this?

I've done a bit of reading and fortunately, Tokyo has a great infrastructure for public transport, so I should be fine getting around, but figuring out how to use the kiosks etc might prove difficult to a none native speaker or reader... How friendly / helpful are the Japanese to English speaking visitors?

I'd really appreciate any helpful tips anyone on here can offer up, I understand that some of you may be repeating yourselves for the umpteenth time on this thread, when someone decides to go the Japan for the first time... but as my time there is limited on this trip, I just want to get the most out of the short experience.

I have a couple of acquaintances in Tokyo, but I can't rely on them for every eventuality whilst I am there. Thanks and I look forward to any replies!

112

Sleep on the plane its 9 hours ahead which totally kills day 1-3 if you don't. Don't take too much luggage there are not many lifts or escalators in the train stations. For clothes there is a great big bic-qlo in shinjuku (like 6 floors or something) it's where I got all my presents there is also a ton of hard offs there.

The he absolute best thing you can do is hire a portable wifi unit for yourself (these are about ?10-12 a day and can be booked from the uk before you leave and sent straight to your hotel/airport) that way you can carry your phone around and use the gps, google translate etc etc I would have been completely screwed without it as I found the people friendly but English is limited a lot more than you would think its not a tourist place if I'm honest.

For or trains you buy a sucia (downstairs booth in narita airport) then top it up in stations or the machines - it works exactly like a London Oyster card touch out, and touch in easy, you can also get a refund when you leave (I'm assuming you are getting the nex from narita in you get it cheaper as a tourist.

final thing I can think of if you have any money left change it in narita airport you get a way better rate than back in blighty

[briareos_kerensky]

I've done a bit of reading and fortunately, Tokyo has a great infrastructure for public transport, so I should be fine getting around, but figuring out how to use the kiosks etc might prove difficult to a none native speaker or reader... How friendly / helpful are the Japanese to English speaking visitors?

Ticket vending machines are in English as well, even without a Suica it's pretty easy going around Tokyo: you can buy the correct ticket, or buy the cheapest ticket and pay the rest at the arriving station.
The first time I was in Tokyo a Japanese gentleman asked me if I needed help (I was checking at a tube timetable more out of curiousity than anything), and a foreign couple did the same (checking the tube map for connections, trying to figure out if I could shave a few yen on the trip). Most people won't help without asking, but if you do, they'll help as much as they can.

I didn't visit many temples and museums in Tokyo as I had more than my share in Kyoto and Osaka, but this year (I'll head there in a month...argh, the wait!) I'll probably pay a visit to the open-air Edo museum, especially if they still have the Studio Ghibli exhibits. In Tokyo I usually hit the arcades (rainy weather in April when I first went helped) or stores...ah, the special editions of metal albums the Japanese have!
For videogame stores, yes, there's Akihabara, but you'll want to pay a visit to Nakano and the Mandarake there, you can find almost as much as Akihabara at usually cheaper prices.

Don't take too much luggage there are not many lifts or escalators in the train stations.

Oh so very true. It's probably better going with two smaller cases rather than a big one, thinking about Tokyo Station.