The Japan Trip Resource Thread!

[tokyochojin]

nobu give us a pm when you get here ok bud'?

[Nobu]

Will have the chance to meet up in Tokyo from the 5th to the 9th of April, if anyone is up for it and I can manage to get around and so on. Will send you a PM when I log on somewhere, tokyochojin!

Will be staying at the Shinjuku New City Hotel, by the way.

Edit: Will, will, will...

[tokyochojin]

Cool, i have a date on the 7th but if you fancy going for a few drinks on the 8th(friday) that would be ok!

[Kungfu]

Jushin-Thunder-Liger, cheers for the heads up on Japanese penfriends. Very cool site if a liitle gruelling searching through the countless ads.

All I hope is that my J-girl isn't infact a 45 year old salaryman imposter.

[Jushin-Thunder-Liger]

Jushin-Thunder-Liger, cheers for the heads up on Japanese penfriends. Very cool site if a liitle gruelling searching through the countless ads.

All I hope is that my J-girl isn't infact a 45 year old salaryman imposter.

Well you never know, but in the main they seem to absolutly cracking looking girls who are sick of being treated like ****e by Japanese guys.

I have noticed Japanese girls are so amazed and happy if you hold a door open for them, offer to carry her heavy bags or pay for dinner/movie tickets.

Do all 3 in 1 night and there is little she wont be comming back to your hotel with you, especially if you have built up a good rapport by email. (Or have Blonde hair and blue eyes)

Last time i was in Japan though, i spent so much time womanizing that i only spent 2 hours game shopping.

SO BEWARE!!!!!

[Kungfu]

Last time i was in Japan though, i spent so much time womanizing that i only spent 2 hours game shopping.

Sounds perfectly acceptable to me, hell I would be worried if it was the other way round to be honest.

[Scoey]

Hi, me and a friend are seriously considering spending a few months WWOOFing in Japan this summer. Anyone here have any experience doing that or know anyone who's done it? Any help\advice\warnings would be appreciated. It seems pretty good to me, a nice fairly inexpensive way of spending a decent amount of time in Japan. We intend on spending a few weeks in Tokyo just staying in a hotel or whatever, as a bit of a normal holiday, but for the rest we'll be doing the WWOOFing thing. We're both studying Japanese in University and are sort of hoping it will help improve our understanding of the language, is this likely? Thanks

[tokyochojin]

What the hells Woofing? I heard Korea is alot more lenient to those sort of things.

[Scoey]

Well as far as I'm aware it involves doing slave labour on Japanese farms and such for a pittance. Here's the site http://www.wwoofjapan.com/index_e.shtml
anyway, if I had more money I'd much prefer to just go for a long holiday over there, but I'm a poor student so this thing seems like a decent way get to spend a good while over there for not so much money. I'm thinking it may be a bad idea though, because if I really hate it, it could make me hate Japan and cause me to drop out of college, heh.

[tokyochojin]

Why don't you just get a job in a bar?

[Scoey]

Because I've been informed that actual real jobs such as bar work and English teaching require work visas, which are possibly hard to get,especially at what is now quite short notice. I don't know. Apparently this WWOOF thing, they just give you your accomodation and meals, so it's not technically considered a "job", therefore a regular tourist visa is sufficient. I'm not even sure I'd prefer a job in a bar in Tokyo to a few hours work each day on a farm(actually no,thinking about it, I would prefer it), but anyway, wouldn't that sort of thing require a higher standard than one year of University Japanese?

[tokyochojin]

Listen, forget what you think you know about Tokyo dude. If you went to Roppongi you could get a bar job within 15 minutes. It all depends what you wan't from your trip. Serving loud mouthed gaijin and getting the pick of the J-chicks while living in an over crowded metropolis, or working on some farm in the middle of no-where but ultimately seeing the 'Real' Japan.

[tokyochojin]

Btw what course is it you are doing in Japanese? If i come back to the UK i'm looking at picking up a degree in Japanese, hows the course etc etc.

[Scoey]

It all depends what you wan't from your trip. Serving loud mouthed gaijin and getting the pick of the J-chicks while living in an over crowded metropolis, or working on some farm in the middle of no-where but ultimately seeing the 'Real' Japan.

Well to be honest I'm not quite sure which of those options sounds more appealing to me. I'm pretty sure it's the overcrowded metropolis aspect of Japan with the flashing neon lights and stuff that I'm interested in and not planting trees in the "real" Japan.

If I did get a job in Roppongi(even though I've been told the place is just horrible) what sort of pay am I looking at? Would it be enough to live comfortably in Tokyo? Also,would they hire you just for a couple of months? Also this would be illegal with a normal visa yes? What sort of consequences would I be looking at if "the man" found out?

[tokyochojin]

Basically i would say around 40% of those people who work in Tokyo are doing so on a tourist visa. Hell, before you come why not get a working holiday visa then you can work legally. The pay around Roppongi i guess is around 1000Y an hour plus tips. Well it was 2 years ago, when i worked there.

Anyway, about your JP course. Sorry dude i am just interested in what the course is like as like i said thinking about doing it.