MY THOUGHTS ON JAPAN. Having Lived for 1 MONTH in Tokyo, Japan
What is the experience for foreigners to stay/live for awhile in Japan? I’ve always had an interest in Japan. In my late teens and twenties I was really into music, listening to punk, new wave and mod bands. Popular subcultures were a big thing in the 70’s and 80s and I dressed accordingly, kept in touch with my favourite groups and musicians by reading the New Musical Express and Sounds weekly music newspapers, plus The Face AND SMASH HITS magazines. Fashion styles were constantly changing.
Groups were now creating music videos which were showcased on the the MTV channel. The Face magazine would publish a lot of Japanese influences. David Bowie, my idol was big in Japan. One of my favourite new wave groups were called Japan. Be Bop Deluxe another one of my favourite groups also had a song called er you guessed it……. Japan.
So Japan was very much on my radar. But also very out of my reach as it was considered a very expensive country to visit. Unlike India which was the first south-east Asian country I visited in 1987. So I bought The Lonely Planet guide to Japan which I placed on my bookshelf and left it there gathering dust for 2 decades.
In 2007 I was living in London. I’d been working in a library for 6 years. Both my parents had recently died and I came into some inheritance. Over the past 30 years the yen has fluctuated between 120 – 260 yen to the British pound. During summer 2007 it was hovering around 240. The highest it had been against the £ for almost 10 years. So this was the time for me to go and I made plans to stop work, give up my flat and travel to Japan for the first time. I arrived on New Year’s Eve, not realising just how cold Tokyo gets during winter. I hate the cold, so this was a bit of a schoolboy error on my part. But I rented an apartment and stayed in Tokyo for 5 months at the start of 2008 before travelling to other neighbouring Asian countries.
Over the years I’ve yearned to return to experience Japan during the summer. But I can’t believe It’s taken me 16 years to go back there. Having gone to the Beijing Olympics in China in 2008, I proposed that I’d return to Japan in 2020 to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics. But covid scuppered those plans. The Olympics was put back a year to 2021, but sadly no spectators were allowed.
So here I am in 2024, back in Japan.
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27 Comments
At first looked like u where walking in a southern cal beach neighborhood,then kinda like Disney land. Just as groomed and cold. maybe a place just to visit.
I felt like Japan got a simulated by the Star Trek Borg in the late 90s and now they’ve been fully assimilated and America too
I would feel alone in any country without a family or connection. Travelling alone is not my bag. But, different strokes for different folks.
i'd be on the next plane back to the PI
Looks peaceful. Are there any internet chat sites for English speaking folks? Sites with info on local happening like music, arts, bars, nitelife, etc ? How is the food scene? I hear you can eat fairly cheaply. Enjoy and stay safe. 😊
So many still wearing masks. I know the Japanese wear masks when they are sick, but they cannot all be sick. This makes me sad to see. It is like this in Silicon Valley Ca. People still wearing masks and act like robots. Looks like I need me some PI kindness too!
Would you say they are less glued to their phones than in PI?
Since they aren’t dirt poor and desperate….the girls don’t throw themselves at expats feet.
as an older viewer, who is your peer in age, i ask myself what happens to you when you have health issues with long term decline. as for me, at at 71, canadian govt paid for heart surgery with public health. plus i have home and pension. 😮
I lived in Japan for 15 years. The dancing is Bon Odori (盆踊り), meaning simply "Bon dance", is a style of dancing performed during Obon. It is a folk entertainment, which has a history of nearly 600 years. Originally a Nenbutsu folk dance to welcome the spirits of the dead, the style of celebration varies in many aspects from region to region.
You do realize that we are living in a simulation. Right?
Extending your stay in a place where you feel alienated, in a residential area not fit for tourists, rather than embrace the vibrant nightlife of the city, but then decide not to visit Osaka and Kyoto after all. Very, very strange.
Interesting to see you on various grounds mate. Japan is it just Japan first, but Japan only. Nice people, of course, but a foreigner will be feeling coldness.
Good place for isolation. Peace.
probably one of the reasons for the high suicide rate there, the isolationist society. you should make more videos on daily life there. head to a hot spring town or something.
I think you have it.
You seem to be invisible to the people there
Stayed rather than 'lived'. In Japan you will only be seen as an 'ojiiii-chan' means grandpa. The Japanese are hyper-suspicious and see will only see you as a 'gaijin' = outsider. it's just the way japan is. The only way to get welcomed in the society is to work or study there and build trust. Then you can make friends and if you are lucky, get laid. It's the same way as when a Filipino walks around London, they're never going to be treated like a minor celebrity as we are in the PH. The PH is the exception to the rule, as you know. Besides that, the best of getting some Japanese snatch is to get them abroad, as they are too worried about protecting their image there.
Frenchie old boy, i think you'd like Santa Barbara, California.
Anybody notice that there weren't many cars. Everybody was walking or riding bikes and the streets were not car friendly. This is such the opposite of most of the US. The WEF and UN want this for American cities.
I lived in Japan for 10 years so here's my $0.02 worth.
Japan ISN'T strange. It's that YOU don't fit there. It's a completely different culture from Philippines (and far more affluent, advanced and sophisticated) and if you've been to Japan before you should know that. The Japanese don't normally talk to strangers (unless their job requires them to) and they don't go around greeting and smiling at everyone they pass in the street. If you do that in Japan they'll think you're loco/crazy ("henna gaijin" = strange/weird foreigner). They avoid direct or prolonged eye contact with strangers. Also, most Japanese don't speak English or speak it well so if you approach them in the street speaking English you will very likely embarrass them/make them feel uncomfortable.
It's their culture, they keep themselves to themselves in public (unless out with family, friends or co-workers drinking in the evening). The only way to really get to know the Japanese is to live and work there and learn the language, like the 3 young foreign guys you interviewed. The Japanese have a public and private face (honnae and tatemae) and as a visitor all you will see is the public face and you'll only touch the surface of Japan – – like observing it from a train window. It can take years to fully understand the people, their culture, country and mentality. Japan is unlike anywhere else on this planet.
So, if you don't like walking around Japan feeling invisible as a tourist, not being noticed or getting the daily attention you seem to crave, then you're in the wrong country buddy. And unlike Filipinas Japanese women aren't interested in old single foreign men ("oyaji") or their pensions because they've got more money in the bank than we do. Also, J. women don't stay in cheap/one-star hotels and they won't be impressed if you do. They don't like 'Cheap Charlies' so if you want to date a hot young J. woman of model standard you better be young, handsome and have a high income/top job/expat package ideally living and working there with a paid high-end company apartment in one of the most desirable city areas.
Nor is Japan necessarily "isolating" for a single man. It can be for a single tourist like you who doesn't speak Japanese or know the country well, but I lived there as a single man and had a great time. There weren't enough hours in the week to fit in all the dating options available to me. You need to understand the Japanese, their culture, and YOU need to adapt and adjust. You either fit in there or you don't. Japan is NOT for everyone.
Finally, if you're a foreigner and the only place you can afford to retire is Phils or Cambodia then you'll probably feel poor in Japan. My suggestion for Phil: stay in PH or Brighton. You'll fit in better there. 😀
We are concerned about you big mate please spend your time with good people don’t be alone all the time in Japan and try to go Bach Philippines 🇵🇭 where you feel loved and appreciated
Must do better old chap
And flat caps are just for us northerners😉
It does seem a bit sad coming from the Philippines and going pretty much anywhere else in Asia… It looks like nothing beats the Philippines openly friendly culture.
Japan drives everyone bonkers. All the gaijin who have lived there 30 years are nuts.
Yup that's japan. Maybe you need to go to the country side where there are less foreigners. They are usually more curious, but you will still run into the language barrier.
Watching this video will result in loss of face.
Language and patience is key in Japan, my second home. My Kansai wife of 40+ years split our time between the U.S. West Coast and Takarazuka, near Osaka, her family region. I can understand the culture shock of coming from the West, or the Philippines, Japan is not a turn key destination for folks hoping for a quick and easy immersion in a local sense, but it's not a nation of cold people at all. Just takes time, and yeah, if you're a tourist your wallet has a timer on it running.