Life in Japan series [Part One]

Day 2,727, 04:35 • Published in Japan Japan • by William of Edenbury


Hello Everyone o/

Today I bring to you the birth of a short (or perhaps long) series about living in the real life Japan!

Normally, real life should be kept completely separate from games, but as in many other cases, eJapan is an exception to the rule. Many of the players here want to visit Japan in real life, so this should be interesting to a decent number of people.

Disclaimer: I am a male 23 year old ethnic Hispanic from the United States of America. My view of Japan is based on that platform because a human being can only ever be themselves. I will try to be objective as much as possible, but there will be bias. As the reader please remember to exercise your own intellect in relation to what I write.

While the primary purpose of this series will be to write about my experiences in Japan, I will also be adding in notes and random advice for others that might want to come to this beautiful country.




Things to consider before coming

Before you actually come to Japan, you want to plan things to make your time here as enjoyable as possible. In my opinion, here are some things you should consider doing.

-Getting work first:
If you would like to stay in Japan for a long time, then I highly suggesting getting work that will make that possible. I got work with one of the many English education companies and it turned out great for me. The reason for getting work, besides the paycheck and such, is because it gives a very good excuse to interact with Japanese people and worm your way into the fabric of society. The people you work with are going to be forced to talk with you after all 😛


-Getting translation help:
If you are going to be here for any length of time, you will need a translator to help you arrange where you will live and the various bits of legal things you must complete. If you are looking for work in Japan, I suggest checking to see if they will help you get your life set up here. My company helped a great deal and made my life a ton easier. (Btw I am not saying the name of my company so you people can't find me 😛)


-Paperwork is a bitch:
You will have an ass ton of paperwork to do beginning with your visa application and all that. Japan is still very much all about physical paperwork so be ready for that.

-Regional Restrictions:
You will probably need adapters if you bring your own electronics. Japan uses a two pronged outlet that doesnt really work with the 3 prongs of some of the heavier usage electronics of the US. Also, you can't access mangareader and anime sites from back home here without changing your IP address. That means no Crunchyroll with vanilla internet access. Also no Fakku ;_;


Ok Now on to the less boring stuff



My arrival in Japan

The plane ride was a b!tch, let me just say that. It was hours of sitting in a middle seat and I couldn't fall asleep. While in there though, I got my first little "Aha" moment. Everybody on that flight was watching anime. Everybody. I had a dude next to me that looked like he was in his 80s and he was watching Doraemon. I loved it.

When I finally got to Japan, I touched down in Narita airport. It is supposedly the main airport for Tokyo, but its nowhere near the place. In fact, I didnt see Tokyo until like a month into my stay here. In the hotel I had my first experience with everyday Japan. The dress code around here is all over the place. I regularly see people in traditional clothing all over the place but especially at festivals. At ceremonies there are a lot of women wearing Kimonos but the guys pretty much always wear modern suits rather than traditional clothing. My favorite part of how everyone dresses though is that there are a lot more women with skirts and stockings/pantyhose. If you are a legs man, you will be in heaven




Anyways, about Japanese hotels and bathrooms. The rooms at that hotel were fine but I later found out that most hotel rooms are ridiculously small. I mean it to the point that I was in one room where the bed was in contact with three of the four main walls. I could not even fully stretch out when I slept there and I am about average height for the US. As for the bathrooms, Japanese people love their baths. Every place I have been in has a tub that is big enough to sit in so you can take a relaxing bath. In some places I wish they had just put in a shower and given me some more room in the main area though :/

As for the toilets... You get three kinds around here. The first is the squat toilet. Thankfully those are the least common, but they are the most awkward if you want to take a dump. Second is the traditional sitting toilet we are all used to using. Third comes that space age motherf**ker you've all heard about. Let me just say this: Check the settings before you do anything. I got hit with a stream of water in a spot I should not have, because apparently a lady had been the last one to stay in my hotel room.





My new home

So after a while of training for my new job and such which was too boring for me to write about, I was finally taken to my new home. I now live in a rather small town by any standards. I originally thought that because Japan is so small and the population so big, there could not possibly be any truly small towns. I was wrong. Very wrong. I now have to drive 30 minutes north just to find an electronics store. Not even a good one. Just a place where they sell TVs and household stuff. But I actually ended up loving it. The smaller the town, the more that people will end up knowing you. This is of course, both a good and bad thing. The good news is that people are more comfortable trying to talk to me. the bad news is that everyone immediately recognizes me and will gossip about anything I do. I took a wrong turn one day at a weird intersection and the next day one of my Japanese colleagues was telling me how to cross it correctly because someone snitched on me....



Oh and there are rice paddies everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. They flood them around this time of year and the noise that the frogs start making is ridiculously loud. The paddies look pretty, like there are bits of grassy lines growing through a mirror, but the noise is extremely annoying. Also, you have to be careful not to fall into them. They are obviously lower than the road and the roads around here are already narrow as it is without farming going on right next to them.




Today's Story

Each article will contain at least one or two "funny" stories of my daily life here. You will now find out why that above image is here.

You all know how it is rude to ask a girl's age right? Yeah, well f**k that bit of advice. Around here you have to ask.
When I first got to this town, I started eating out at nearby restaurants and convenience stores. There this one store I normally go to and there were these two cute girls that worked there and were very enthusiastic about wanting to talk to me. So blah blah blah we talk for a day or two and I start turning on the old charm. Well partway through about the third time talking to them, I suddenly think to ask about their ages. My guess was that they were both about 21. Well.... I was partially correct. Turns out that one of them was 22.... but the one I had been mainly trying to flirt with was 16.... So yeah... I took a couple showers and read a few bible verses that night.

After that little shocker I made it a point of trying to find out women's ages through various ways. Well lets just say that I can no longer tell age for sh!t apparently. All the women look roughly 18-20 if they are actually in the age range of 15-39. So yeah.... Do not assume anything about the age of ladies in Japan. I am not going to go into further detail, but there are a few stories as to why I place that image above this section :/


Well ignoring my own personal tragedy there at the end lol, This has been the opening article to my living in Japan series. Honestly this one came out a little more boring than I wanted it too. There was too much necessary set up to the more current stories. Now I leave you with a preview of the next few stories though

-Story 2: Love blooms for a 5th grade class: or, How to embarrass the hell out of your students

-Story 3: Drunk in Tokyo: or, Why you should get a hotel before getting P!ss drunk

-Story 4: The art of getting some: Or, Hey I am just as surprised as you are

-Story 5: The Gaijin pass: or, Wtf are you doing? Stahp!

-Story 6: Drinking culture in Japan: or Please god, no more alcohol, I'm begging you


~Hideyoshi William
Eternally chased by Lolis