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Tracy desu yo, pessimist and world’s worst procrastinator. Uni student with still a lot of things to learn. Interests include otome games, Naruto and Japanese.

: Loves pink, food, ice-cream.
Summer is my eternal love.

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Japan trip thoughts and a semi-guide

written on Saturday, March 22, 2014 @ 11:53 PM ✈

First off, my eyes are pretty pissed off at me cause I've been sitting here since about 8 pm doing my 1000 words without a break and just finished it about half an hour ago. Compared to the days of english essay writing I'm glad I did it relatively quickly?

Also I have to say that the rest of my uni life this semester is officially ruined and I'm probably going to get bad grades OTL Why? I just discovered that the this series of games I have always wanted to play but couldn't because I didn't own a play station of any kind is actually playable by PC OMG. Which series? Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm! sdflkjsadlkfjdsalkf. I don't care if PC game play sucks compared to a PS because I don't OWN one so no choice there. And only downside is that I can't stand the stupid english dubbers of the game (I don't think we can buy it in Japanese or if there is such a thing) so I'll probably just have to mute. Even though most of the game is fighting or telling the story as seen in the anime I'm sure it'll be good. Totally going to fork out $50 to $60 for it when I have the time because I haven't bought an actual "game game" in ages so I'll spoil myself.

Another thing that sucks is I just discovered that the game I wanted to play that I was talking about yesterday is on YOUTUBE. The great thing about visual novels is that it's just a "visual story" so you can easily "play" it by watching a video of it since no actual gaming takes place. I don't know what I'm saying anymore but omg totally going to waste my life away now. Too bad we're still in the middle of uni ugh.

Okay! So this post is dedicated to any observations/ thoughts/ whatever that I had about my Japan trip. Only problem is I never write them down when I think of them so I've probably forgotten a lot about it. Anyway as I do these posts over the next few weeks let me know any thoughts you have in the comments section below or in the cbox! :D

First of all I have to say that I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with Japan and even though I knew I would like it before I even went there, I didn't know I would love it THIS MUCH!! Sorry but I can't understand everyone's infatuation with USA and such because to me, their culture would probably be similar enough to ours so that doesn't excite me in the least. Plus it's still english speaking there so maybe I don't find it challenging enough LOL and then China is too challenging and everyone's too familiar > > So like I once said, Japan was a change since it was my first time going somewhere as an actual "tourist" and not for relatives visiting!

Okay let's go dot point style heh heh. First up is observations:

First off, the plane food was SO nice, much better than whatever we get when going to china. They also gave us 2 meals so by the time we got there at night even though it was around 7pm or something there was no way I could eat because I was so damn full. They even gave us ice-cream on the plane and I cried tears of happiness (not really but you get it). I LOVE MY ICE-CREAM OKAY.
Yes, there are vending machines everywhere. First one I found was at the airport and it was - you guessed it - an ice-cream vending machine! Although I say there are a lot of vending machines, you'd probably only see about like 30 or so a day max or something they're not literally everywhere.
The internet lied and told me you might want to bring some tissue/toilet paper in case you go to one where there isn't any ever because during my whole trip this never happened. One of the number 1 things that makes me cry when we go to china is the gross ass toilets and the lack of paper. This never happened in japan. Even the crappiest toilet was better than china's by far. Most toilets are so clean and if they have to have the asian squat toilet, they usually have a western one as well. So nice (※థэథ)∵.*.∵.)
Japanese people have really good customer service. No seriously. More on this in later posts!
Japanese people love their phones. Look around you on the train and 90% of them will probably be looking at their phones. What's great is that there is no Apple OR Samsung rubbish going on in Japan, most people own a docomo from what I've seen.
Contrary to what people say, I don't think you have to be super conscious of fashion when you go to Japan. Of course there are people who are stylish, but to me most people dress in a way that's comfortable and practical (this is me looking at all ages).
CONVENIENCE. STORES. ARE. THE. BEST. Damn, I cry everyday still because ours suck and I would give anything to be able to go back to the conbinis :(
I forgot where I read this, but somewhere it said that coffee is generally expensive in Japan. It tends to cost about 500 or even 600 yen for a cup (~$5 to $6) though I didn't personally see this. However, if you're after coffee I definitely recommend getting a set, preferably a morning set (usually 8 to 11am or something) which is a special deal where for about 400 to 600 yen you can get coffee and some sort of pastry, or even a boiled egg LOL. The sets are usually worth it :)
So the major coffee chains in Japan are Tully's, Doutor coffee, Excelsior Cafe, and to a lesser extent, Starbucks and Caffe Veloce. Major conbini (convenience stores) chains would be FamilyMart, 7-11, Lawson's. I always laugh at this but on a 100 metre stretch of street I'm not kidding when I say you could probably find at least 4 coffee chains and 4 conbini stores on it. It's seriously funny as ^^ Okay I just googled and apparently 7-11 dominates with 12467 stores in Japan, Lawson has 9562 and FamilyMart 7604. Did not know.
I have to say police boxes were not as common as people make it out to be. I think I only found about 5 the whole time? Police boxes are places where policemen are stationed for the soul purpose of looking up places on a map and helping to direct people to where they want to go. This is because Tokyo has a confusing layout system. More on this later.
Oh yes I have to say this. Japan is NOT expensive. This pisses me off so much when people get it wrong. It's only expensive depending on where you CHOOSE to go. It's like Australia, we have cheap places, moderate and expensive places. It's only as expensive as you want it to be. Generally prices in Japan are pretty much the same as they are here.
Public drunkenness is acceptable. Not a big deal because I don't stay out late or hang around those places but I don't think it gets too bad like it does here. Basically when I say people get drunk I'm talking businessmen who go out late at night with co-workers or their boss mainly. I always wonder how they can stay out late drinking when they have work early the next morning?
Japan is all about convenience. Their trains are a dream, even when they are late it seemingly has no effect on anybody because every time I get on a platform I never check any timetables since a train always arrives within 5 minutes. Awesome. Also did I mention Japan has a suitcase/luggage forwarding service where for about 1000 yen ($11) you can have it delivered same day or overnight to pretty much any city within Japan? AWESOME.
The fact that wearing face masks is a thing and is acceptable is just damn awesome and I wish I could do that here without being stared at weirdly. Could totally prevent being sick with this.

Okay so yeah I did forget a lot of things I originally wanted to say :( So with all these positives you're probably thinking "oh god shut up already" so I'll balance it out with a few things that weren't so great. No these things didn't get me down, nor do I hate them, I just mean I didn't *love* these aspects lol.

This actually proved entertaining but nonetheless I should warn you - you will get trolled hard by Tokyo's really weird layout. There are no street numbers for a start so good luck.
You better have stamina! Because the trains are built for standing and so there's only two rows of seats that go across the length of the train on either side so that there is maximum space for people to stand in the middle of the train. It's not like our trains which have lots of seats. Again, it wasn't too bad but I mean it's different.
Okay this is sad but just like China, smoking is a "thing" over here. I don't mean everyone does it but it's not like Australia where it's normal for it to be no smoking in buildings, restaurants, etc. Smoking is acceptable in a lot of restaurants, fast food places, etc so I warn you now that your meal may get ruined by that :( There are non-smoking seats though, you just need to know where to look.
In Japan, it's impolite to talk on the train. Not a big deal but if you ever go with friends keep this in mind so that you don't disturb the other passengers? It's usually dead silent on the trains, quite nice actually!
Also it's impolite to walk and eat at the same time. Doesn't sound too bad but sometimes when I buy food and there's somewhere I need to be this can really suck.
It's also bad manners to blow your nose in public and this was REALLY troublesome for me because my nose is ALWAYS runny and it didn't help that I was over there in winter. I don't "blow" my nose but I usually just need to wipe it but then I get all conscious that bringing out a tissue will make people think I need to blow it and then I might get disapproving stares :(

Anyway guys, any thoughts? :D

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Japan trip thoughts and a semi-guide

written on Saturday, March 22, 2014 @ 11:53 PM ✈

First off, the plane food was SO nice, much better than whatever we get when going to china. They also gave us 2 meals so by the time we got there at night even though it was around 7pm or something there was no way I could eat because I was so damn full. They even gave us ice-cream on the plane and I cried tears of happiness (not really but you get it). I LOVE MY ICE-CREAM OKAY.
Yes, there are vending machines everywhere. First one I found was at the airport and it was - you guessed it - an ice-cream vending machine! Although I say there are a lot of vending machines, you'd probably only see about like 30 or so a day max or something they're not literally everywhere.
The internet lied and told me you might want to bring some tissue/toilet paper in case you go to one where there isn't any ever because during my whole trip this never happened. One of the number 1 things that makes me cry when we go to china is the gross ass toilets and the lack of paper. This never happened in japan. Even the crappiest toilet was better than china's by far. Most toilets are so clean and if they have to have the asian squat toilet, they usually have a western one as well. So nice (※థэథ)∵.*.∵.)
Japanese people have really good customer service. No seriously. More on this in later posts!
Japanese people love their phones. Look around you on the train and 90% of them will probably be looking at their phones. What's great is that there is no Apple OR Samsung rubbish going on in Japan, most people own a docomo from what I've seen.
Contrary to what people say, I don't think you have to be super conscious of fashion when you go to Japan. Of course there are people who are stylish, but to me most people dress in a way that's comfortable and practical (this is me looking at all ages).
CONVENIENCE. STORES. ARE. THE. BEST. Damn, I cry everyday still because ours suck and I would give anything to be able to go back to the conbinis :(
I forgot where I read this, but somewhere it said that coffee is generally expensive in Japan. It tends to cost about 500 or even 600 yen for a cup (~$5 to $6) though I didn't personally see this. However, if you're after coffee I definitely recommend getting a set, preferably a morning set (usually 8 to 11am or something) which is a special deal where for about 400 to 600 yen you can get coffee and some sort of pastry, or even a boiled egg LOL. The sets are usually worth it :)
So the major coffee chains in Japan are Tully's, Doutor coffee, Excelsior Cafe, and to a lesser extent, Starbucks and Caffe Veloce. Major conbini (convenience stores) chains would be FamilyMart, 7-11, Lawson's. I always laugh at this but on a 100 metre stretch of street I'm not kidding when I say you could probably find at least 4 coffee chains and 4 conbini stores on it. It's seriously funny as ^^ Okay I just googled and apparently 7-11 dominates with 12467 stores in Japan, Lawson has 9562 and FamilyMart 7604. Did not know.
I have to say police boxes were not as common as people make it out to be. I think I only found about 5 the whole time? Police boxes are places where policemen are stationed for the soul purpose of looking up places on a map and helping to direct people to where they want to go. This is because Tokyo has a confusing layout system. More on this later.
Oh yes I have to say this. Japan is NOT expensive. This pisses me off so much when people get it wrong. It's only expensive depending on where you CHOOSE to go. It's like Australia, we have cheap places, moderate and expensive places. It's only as expensive as you want it to be. Generally prices in Japan are pretty much the same as they are here.
Public drunkenness is acceptable. Not a big deal because I don't stay out late or hang around those places but I don't think it gets too bad like it does here. Basically when I say people get drunk I'm talking businessmen who go out late at night with co-workers or their boss mainly. I always wonder how they can stay out late drinking when they have work early the next morning?
Japan is all about convenience. Their trains are a dream, even when they are late it seemingly has no effect on anybody because every time I get on a platform I never check any timetables since a train always arrives within 5 minutes. Awesome. Also did I mention Japan has a suitcase/luggage forwarding service where for about 1000 yen ($11) you can have it delivered same day or overnight to pretty much any city within Japan? AWESOME.
The fact that wearing face masks is a thing and is acceptable is just damn awesome and I wish I could do that here without being stared at weirdly. Could totally prevent being sick with this.

This actually proved entertaining but nonetheless I should warn you - you will get trolled hard by Tokyo's really weird layout. There are no street numbers for a start so good luck.
You better have stamina! Because the trains are built for standing and so there's only two rows of seats that go across the length of the train on either side so that there is maximum space for people to stand in the middle of the train. It's not like our trains which have lots of seats. Again, it wasn't too bad but I mean it's different.
Okay this is sad but just like China, smoking is a "thing" over here. I don't mean everyone does it but it's not like Australia where it's normal for it to be no smoking in buildings, restaurants, etc. Smoking is acceptable in a lot of restaurants, fast food places, etc so I warn you now that your meal may get ruined by that :( There are non-smoking seats though, you just need to know where to look.
In Japan, it's impolite to talk on the train. Not a big deal but if you ever go with friends keep this in mind so that you don't disturb the other passengers? It's usually dead silent on the trains, quite nice actually!
Also it's impolite to walk and eat at the same time. Doesn't sound too bad but sometimes when I buy food and there's somewhere I need to be this can really suck.
It's also bad manners to blow your nose in public and this was REALLY troublesome for me because my nose is ALWAYS runny and it didn't help that I was over there in winter. I don't "blow" my nose but I usually just need to wipe it but then I get all conscious that bringing out a tissue will make people think I need to blow it and then I might get disapproving stares :(

Anyway guys, any thoughts? :D