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Small town Japan. Nice photos.

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I love Japan but their beaches (on the western shores) are the worst I've ever been to. From all the shells forming on the rocks right below the water, I was able to cut myself 3 times before I decided to stay out of the water. Too rocky.
 
japan will be my next vacation hopefully. maid cafes' ftw

egl_010.jpg
 
Narmer said:
I love Japan but their beaches (on the western shores) are the worst I've ever been to. From all the shells forming on the rocks right below the water, I was able to cut myself 3 times before I decided to stay out of the water. Too rocky.
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Shirahama has a great white sand beach. They import the sand from Australia🙂

File:ShirahamaBeach.jpg



My great-grandmother was from nearby so we used to go there every summer.
 
Toonces said:
Nice pictures, but this is far from small town, it's a suburb of Toyko.
It's only 18 minutes to the busiest train station in the world! Like taking the Skytrain from Metrotown to Burrard.

I lived here for 8 months. This is small town Japan. 😀
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Hay Toonces how do you find living in Japan? I have extensive experience living in Asia but never been to Japan. I really want to go some day soon. I've even thought of teaching to live there a while.
 
Narmer said:
I love Japan but their beaches (on the western shores) are the worst I've ever been to. From all the shells forming on the rocks right below the water, I was able to cut myself 3 times before I decided to stay out of the water. Too rocky.
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Lol fail experience is fail. OMG you telling me Japan has rocky beaches! Yeah that would like ruin all of Japan for me too 😛
 
nkgreen said:
Expensive and not worth it. Better to waste your money on pachinko.
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Aren't pachinko parlors mostly old men smoking drinking and pissing away their life savings listening to 200 decibel pachinko machine music? At least so I've read.
 
theflyingpig said:
Yes. In America, the streets are littered with homeless. Do you see any homeless in Japan? No. Stupid Americans can't even keep their streets clean. Everyone knows this.
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Japan, too, has a severe homeless problem that they even built a small homeless-town around parks. Everyone but you knows this.
 
JimmiG said:
Yeah, suburbs don't count. Small towns are supposed to be isolated and several hours away from any big cities. Such towns are horrible places to live. I feel claustrophobic and depressed in such places. I barely make it in my small town (198,000 people in the county), 40 minutes from Stockholm (2 million).

They're completely dead and you never meet anyone new so there are never any new social interactions. There are no interesting stores and there's nothing to do. Public transport is limited to a few buses per day, so if you don't have a car, it's like living in jail. If there's a bar or club, everybody knows each other already so you might as well stay at home with some friends and drink. If there's a cinema, it's tiny and they only show old or b movies.
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Now add that you don't even begin to speak the same language and you've summarized my first 8 months here. It wasn't completely terrible, but I did move to the city as fast as I could; Tokyo is an amazing place to live.

KeithTalent said:
I also loved the umbrella sharing system they had in place. If it started raining you could just take an umbrella from outside a store and leave it outside your next destination. It was like a free sharing system, so you don't have to carry one around all the time, yet you were never caught out it in the rain. 😎
KT
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Hahah, what? Did a Japanese person tell you that?
Those aren't for people to take. Not anymore than the racks of skiis/snowboards outside a chalet are for 'sharing'.:awe:

tenshodo13 said:
I tried that out in Shinjuku. I ended up in the gay bar district. That was interesting.
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I walk through it every day on my way to the station, getting hit on at 6:45 in the morning by a transvestite is always a good way to start the day.:sneaky:

Locut0s said:
Hay Toonces how do you find living in Japan? I have extensive experience living in Asia but never been to Japan. I really want to go some day soon. I've even thought of teaching to live there a while.
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I've managed to secure a really good teaching job here and just moved into a nice apartment in a central part of Tokyo, so things are going great.🙂

Living here isn't too hard but the language can be a huge stumbling block. If you already know Cantonese/Mandarin it won't nearly be as difficult to pick up the basics.

If you want to teach, be aware most jobs will be rural; and I mean really rural. Wages have been deflated recently so unless you're lucky the job won't pay spectacularly, and that's not even taking into account Japan's high cost of living.

But, it's a great experience for someone looking to do something different, travel, or experience a culture far different than North America/Europe.
 
Toonces said:
I've managed to secure a really good teaching job here and just moved into a nice apartment in a central part of Tokyo, so things are going great.🙂

Living here isn't too hard but the language can be a huge stumbling block. If you already know Cantonese/Mandarin it won't nearly be as difficult to pick up the basics.

If you want to teach, be aware most jobs will be rural; and I mean really rural. Wages have been deflated recently so unless you're lucky the job won't pay spectacularly, and that's not even taking into account Japan's high cost of living.

But, it's a great experience for someone looking to do something different, travel, or experience a culture far different than North America/Europe.
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Good to hear you are doing well there. Yeah I'm not surprised at all about the pay situation. In fact I've been warned by several people to be careful if you chose to teach there that you go through reputable channels as there apparently are more than a few scam operations where they bring you in to either teach or be a native speaking assistant and end up either never paying you or paying you a fraction of what they promise.

Is there any sense in Japan right now that they might be on the edge of an economic precipice? I mean I know the whole world has been through the ringer economically and the talk of depression has been rampant everywhere but Japan has some unique issues of its own. Don't they have the highest GDP to debt ratio of just about any country right now? Any talk of the possibility of things getting really bad?
 
Toonces said:
Now add that you don't even begin to speak the same language and you've summarized my first 8 months here. It wasn't completely terrible, but I did move to the city as fast as I could; Tokyo is an amazing place to live.
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So overall you didn't like the rural town? I know they're only pictures, but it seemed pretty nice. Do JimmiG's thoughts on the issue pretty much match yours (nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to meet)?

Toonces said:
Living here isn't too hard but the language can be a huge stumbling block. If you already know Cantonese/Mandarin it won't nearly be as difficult to pick up the basics.
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How much Japanese did you speak before leaving?
 
Locut0s said:
Good to hear you are doing well there. Yeah I'm not surprised at all about the pay situation. In fact I've been warned by several people to be careful if you chose to teach there that you go through reputable channels as there apparently are more than a few scam operations where they bring you in to either teach or be a native speaking assistant and end up either never paying you or paying you a fraction of what they promise.

Is there any sense in Japan right now that they might be on the edge of an economic precipice? I mean I know the whole world has been through the ringer economically and the talk of depression has been rampant everywhere but Japan has some unique issues of its own. Don't they have the highest GDP to debt ratio of just about any country right now? Any talk of the possibility of things getting really bad?
Click to expand...

Economic precipice? lol. I think the Japanese can take care of their economic problems. In fact, the problems are all inter-related. I won't go into specifics but almost 100% of Japanese debt is owed to Japanese citizens, unlike in America where half is owned by foreigners. Also Japan has trillions in foreign-owned debt. And, yes, there is a real debate going on right now about their debt. Most of the public supports an increase in the consumption tax.
 
theflyingpig said:
Yes. In America, the streets are littered with homeless. Do you see any homeless in Japan? No. Stupid Americans can't even keep their streets clean. Everyone knows this.
Click to expand...
Homelessness in Japan has increased substantially in recent years, and its always been there.
 
Locut0s said:
Good to hear you are doing well there. Yeah I'm not surprised at all about the pay situation. In fact I've been warned by several people to be careful if you chose to teach there that you go through reputable channels as there apparently are more than a few scam operations where they bring you in to either teach or be a native speaking assistant and end up either never paying you or paying you a fraction of what they promise.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say there are many outright 'scams' among the English language schools. Mostly companies just over-promise and under-deliver like nickel and diming teachers for expenses, lowering working hours, not paying for prep time, etc... You'll get your money, but it isn't always a pleasant experience. Private school management tends to be either incompetent or malicious.

Your due-diligence would be a search for the school in GaijinPot's or Bigdaikon's forums before signing anything.


Terzo said:
So overall you didn't like the rural town? I know they're only pictures, but it seemed pretty nice. Do JimmiG's thoughts on the issue pretty much match yours (nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to meet)?


How much Japanese did you speak before leaving?
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Basically... it doesn't matter where the small town is.
I made a lot of unique memories, looking back on the experience, but I wouldn't choose to live in a small, isolated, fishing town again.:|

I could count to ten, say hello, and thank you. Practically zero. My biggest regret before leaving was not studying.


Narmer said:
Economic precipice? lol. I think the Japanese can take care of their economic problems. In fact, the problems are all inter-related. I won't go into specifics but almost 100% of Japanese debt is owed to Japanese citizens, unlike in America where half is owned by foreigners. Also Japan has trillions in foreign-owned debt. And, yes, there is a real debate going on right now about their debt. Most of the public supports an increase in the consumption tax.
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This, for the most part. Prime Minister KAAAAANNNN!!! mentioned raising the consumption tax (from 5% to 10%) and the LDP was punished for it during the upper house elections this summer. Both parties acknowledge taxes have to be raised sooner or later, but are trying avoid the issue right now.
 
Nice pics. Ahh the lady on the bike, she is kinda cute, was you stalking her? Because she was in two of your pics. 😉
 
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