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giogadi posted:The jouzu thing doesn’t bother me personally, but I’m trying to imagine the potential experience of my daughter - growing up there all her life, speaking native Japanese, this is her home, but still getting surprised looks from people every time she speaks her native tongue There are a number of interviews on YouTube about this sort of thing. I think you're way overthinking at this point but it's interesting anyway. Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuutlbXLHxU
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Nov 3, 2023 17:37
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zmcnulty posted:Definitely a lot to consider depending on the age of the child. Changing schools sucks as a kid, because you essentially have to start from scratch every time in terms of making friends. I went to three different elementary schools, two different middle schools, then three different high schools. And whelp I have zero childhood friends. Same. I remember people from way long ago but know very few of them and definitely nobody I would call a "childhood friend"/幼馴染 In a way, I feel like it is a kind of fundamental relationship (like siblings) that a lot of people have that I will always just miss out on. Woe is me really, but it is a thing. Similarly, and I don't think this is even unique to Japan, but I think there will always be a sense of "otherness" that isn't a result of overt racism or discrimination, but just the result of a lack of representation, etc. Something minorities in many countries face but maybe not immediately obvious to someone if you're not thinking about it.
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Nov 3, 2023 18:32
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Had a blast in Tokyo. Went to the bars at Golden Gai, went to Bar Ben Fiddich which was great, went to Tantra Tokyo which was fun, walked the city a bit, had a few tours. Now on the Shinkansen to Kyoto. Unfortunately the fish market was closed on Wednesday and some places were closed on Friday for Culture Day like Deathmatch in Hell but no problem.
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Nov 4, 2023 02:02
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Gatts posted:
Aw man. I have a 1 day layover in Tokyo and was finally gonna go. Of course, it's on a Wednesday.
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Nov 4, 2023 15:59
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All you need in the Inaka is a small selection of dad jokes that everyone can have a hearty chortle about. Local (pointing): "ah, gaijin da!" You (pointing back): "ah, nihonjin da!" Guffaws, back-slapping, beers all round etc.
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Nov 4, 2023 20:44
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This thread has been a big help for my trip so far. Tokyo and Osaka have been a lot of fun and there’s been great advice here but the one thing y’all did not prepare me for is the coughing. Everyone everywhere is coughing their asses off with no masks and I guess people don’t cover their mouths here? I’ve been having to mask up basically everywhere because I keep getting coughed directly on or I’m in a restaurant and the table next to me is coughing like they have pneumonia.
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Nov 5, 2023 01:16
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Mask usage was really weird. Sometimes it was ~75% and sometimes it was ~25%. I also noticed the coughing thing, I thought it was just me.
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Nov 5, 2023 01:29
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I'm not in Japan right now but I have never experienced that on any of my trips. Is it possible you are exaggerating how much this is happening? I mean, if it is literally happening everywhere, all the time, that is one thing. But an anecdotal story about a few people coughing in various locations over the course of a week is something else. Not that I am doubting you. It just sounds odd, that's all.
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Nov 5, 2023 01:29
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Both my wife and I developed moderately severe colds right away (I started feeling sick the morning we left, nothing to do with Japan) So I think I was hyper sensitive to sickness or something. Finding cough medicine our first night in Tokyo was a minor adventure.
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Nov 5, 2023 01:31
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I always assumed the coughing (and spitting in Korea/China) had a connection to the heroic amount of smoking. And yeah mouth covering is rare. Mask mandates were still around when I was there and I def noticed that women mostly complied, younger people mostly complied, but most dudes in the ojisan category were at least nose out and largely just had them on their chins.
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Nov 5, 2023 01:36
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A recent history of smoking culture was also my thought.
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Nov 5, 2023 01:37
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It's nice that it's getting better. First time I visited if you wanted to go out to eat or drink without having to second hand a carton of cigs you were hosed, never going to happen.
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Nov 5, 2023 01:39
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Unfortunately, I am not exaggerating any anecdotal experiences and it has been basically everywhere we have gone. We’ve had several people cough in our faces or walk by coughing their lungs out without covering their mouths. We have had a couple of meals ruined by it.
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Nov 5, 2023 03:47
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Making mandates were in force until April of this year and I've noticed at my school the children have lost all ability to cover their cough cause they didn't have to for three years. I imagine a lot of adults are the same. Coincidently flu season hit nearly half my students already.
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Nov 5, 2023 04:14
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Not Japan specific, but I notice when people cough more because of covid and a bit of personal paranoia. I dont mask up all the time since I'm lucky not to have to be in terribly close proximity to other people most of the time, but if I anticipate I will be in a crowded area I will bring a mask along. I brought some along when I was in Japan last month and I bought extras, and I used them whenever I stepped on a packed train. (Again I still got sick because one of my travel friends got sick and I was around them constantly so caution doesn't always mean you'll stay unaffected.) As I said I'm more aware of it since covid, but even before that I was wary of touching common surfaces for fear of spreading illness. When we were deployed in the Navy they wait until you are out to sea before they give you the small pox vaccine and they warn you to wash your hands and not to touch your eyes and face especially since people have a habit of picking at the injection site in your sleep. I spent that week basically using my sleeves as gloves to touch doors and railings and I made it unscathed... However it was evident who among us weren't as concerned with hygiene as our ship turned into a mass of people with all kind of eye funk and other itchy parts. It was kinda nightmarish honestly and its stuck with me til this day.
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Nov 5, 2023 04:30
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1. The flu has been raging through September and October, especially middle schools. 2. Seasonal allergies are also high now from all the dry grasses and grains. 3. As mentioned above, 2-3 years of masking has left people with slack jaws and a lack of awareness.
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Nov 5, 2023 05:50
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I’ve definitely seen a poo poo ton of coughing from people with masks on but pulled down below their chin v vUnrelated but how rude is it really to eat and drink snack food while walking around? Every website is like “you are being dishonourable and disrespecting the work put into the food you should be enjoying” but although I may feel a deep sense of spiritual satisfaction from every Famichiki I eat, this Coke Zero doesn’t evoke the same sense of cultural harmony in my soul.
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Nov 5, 2023 06:37
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Nobody actually cares.
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Nov 5, 2023 06:40
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Charles 2 of Spain posted:Nobody actually cares. It's this People who say otherwise are "content creators" who are hyped to tell you about Japan GIVING AWAY HOUSES!!!
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Nov 5, 2023 09:12
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AHH F/UGH posted:It's this
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Nov 5, 2023 09:14
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Charles 2 of Spain posted:Nobody actually cares. Edit: they’re shining LED lights on the water fountains in Ueno park and it’s prettier than anything in TeamLab Botanical. Question Mark Mound fucked around with this message at 09:40 on Nov 5, 2023 |
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Nov 5, 2023 09:36
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peanut posted:1. The flu has been raging through September and October, especially middle schools. This plus there always was an ojisan or three out there with enormous coughs and pack-a-day habits who never followed manners before and didn’t get any better during COVID. Allergies have to be worse because it’s still hitting above 25 C/77 F for daily highs in Tokyo this past weekend. Climate change has kept me wearing shorts until November.
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Nov 5, 2023 10:25
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Yeah I am definitely regretting bringing pants and long sleeves and am dressing like I’m still in New Orleans. The heat and humidity have felt very Louisiana at times.
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Nov 5, 2023 11:18
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Diodeous posted:Yeah I am definitely regretting bringing pants and long sleeves and am dressing like I’m still in New Orleans. The heat and humidity have felt very Louisiana at times. It’s November. Come in July next time.
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Nov 5, 2023 11:20
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I can’t - that’s when all of my court dates typically fall for the charges I collect each Mardi Gras
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Nov 5, 2023 11:37
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Sheldon Neuse is soon going to be able to drink at any establishment in Osaka for free.
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Nov 5, 2023 11:38
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Charles 2 of Spain posted:Sheldon Neuse is soon going to be able to drink at any establishment in Osaka for free. Is some poor ALT about to get yeeted into the Dotonbori?
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Nov 5, 2023 12:02
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Nessus posted:Aren't all of those disused-but-not-completely-rotting houses in the inaka that, I presume, were seized due to estate taxes or something? I guess you also get haunted by some grandpa who croaked in the tub. Yeah the vast majority of them are basically condemned houses with zero weatherization or insulation and will have huge bug problems. Plus you have to still pay taxes that remain on the property and will need to do serious repairs. Not to mention that you’d still need a visa to do anything but just visit the house for 3 months at a time, and that’s after the labyrinthine paperwork and title transfer process. Plus all those houses are in the middle of absolutely loving nowhere and are abandoned because unless you like looking at rice paddies or forest mountains all day, there ain’t poo poo else to do in those tiny towns.
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Nov 5, 2023 12:10
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I checked the akiya listings in my city and it overlaps with the normal real estate listings. Some modern houses in less convenient neighborhoods with no local family to claim them, some old small houses in central areas with horrible layouts, some houses for sale that just want the increased visibility of being listed on the akiya sites.
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Nov 5, 2023 12:54
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Aww yusssss here we go
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Nov 5, 2023 13:38
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We stayed in a machiya in Kyoto and it was awesome but I can't imagine what it would cost a normal person to renovate such a place to make it up to code and not a death trap.
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Nov 5, 2023 15:52
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Kaddish posted:We stayed in a machiya in Kyoto and it was awesome but I can't imagine what it would cost a normal person to renovate such a place to make it up to code and not a death trap. I have seen between 20 and 40 million yen put into renovating machiya properties for letting to tourists, including installing gardens and moving internal walls around. This is on top of the purchase of the property itself for even more than that (much more depending on location). Here's a pretty good recent youtube on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm-xCi0HLCw
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Nov 5, 2023 16:17
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Hello im a dotonbori convert 🙇🏻
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Nov 5, 2023 16:20
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Nessus posted:Aren't all of those disused-but-not-completely-rotting houses in the inaka that, I presume, were seized due to estate taxes or something? I guess you also get haunted by some grandpa who croaked in the tub. I dunno if they're seized but basically yeah. You can indeed get an abandoned house for next to nothing but it is in the middle of nowhere and you're going to be putting a shitload of money and work into restoring it. If you're into that it's pretty cool though. There's lots of abandoned property in cities too actually, even central parts of Tokyo, but you're not getting that for free. See the video game Yakuza 0 for more details.
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Nov 5, 2023 18:24
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My husband's family has an akiya that they keep passing around as the next owner dies. The house is a bug-infested shack that no one would ever want, but the location isn't terrible. The real problem is that the land is surrounded by a 3-foot strip of land belonging to the prefecture, and in order to build a driveway or any sort of parking space on that land, they need the permission of all the other neighbors whose houses touch that strip of land, and the nextdoor neighbor has steadfastly refused to give permission, for no reason at all. He died recently, and my FIL went to talk to his son, who decided to continue the tradition and refuse for no real reason other than that he can. No one is ever going to buy land that they can't park on, so it has been empty for the last 30 years or so. I imagine lots of akiya have similar baggage and drama, and if you buy one you get to sort all that out.
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Nov 5, 2023 18:48
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LyonsLions posted:My husband's family has an akiya that they keep passing around as the next owner dies. The house is a bug-infested shack that no one would ever want, but the location isn't terrible. The real problem is that the land is surrounded by a 3-foot strip of land belonging to the prefecture, and in order to build a driveway or any sort of parking space on that land, they need the permission of all the other neighbors whose houses touch that strip of land, and the nextdoor neighbor has steadfastly refused to give permission, for no reason at all. He died recently, and my FIL went to talk to his son, who decided to continue the tradition and refuse for no real reason other than that he can. No one is ever going to buy land that they can't park on, so it has been empty for the last 30 years or so. I imagine lots of akiya have similar baggage and drama, and if you buy one you get to sort all that out. Gotta do the classic rich rear end in a top hat move of just building and taking whatever fines/punishment come with it
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Nov 5, 2023 19:43
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On my way to the airport to fly home  Already putting together my list of stuff to do on the next trip, although one of those will need to be “work out how much travelling I really want to do after the JR Pass price hike” Edit: hot diggity drat Narita needs some aircon Question Mark Mound fucked around with this message at 13:18 on Nov 6, 2023 |
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Nov 6, 2023 10:22
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AHH F/UGH posted:Yeah the vast majority of them are basically condemned houses with zero weatherization or insulation and will have huge bug problems. Plus you have to still pay taxes that remain on the property and will need to do serious repairs. Not to mention that you’d still need a visa to do anything but just visit the house for 3 months at a time, and that’s after the labyrinthine paperwork and title transfer process. Plus all those houses are in the middle of absolutely loving nowhere and are abandoned because unless you like looking at rice paddies or forest mountains all day, there ain’t poo poo else to do in those tiny towns.
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Nov 6, 2023 15:28
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Question Mark Mound posted:On my way to the airport to fly home If you think places need aircon, don't come in the cooler months. Walking around 40 degree weather is fine. Walking around 40 degree weather and then into a restaurant to eat means it's time to strip naked to eat while in a sauna. An obvious exaggeration but only by a little. I've never been anywhere where heaters are jacked up so high. Some places feel like it's 80 degrees which feels like a million after coming in from the cold. Not fun.
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Nov 6, 2023 15:58
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Question Mark Mound posted:On my way to the airport to fly home
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Nov 6, 2023 19:01
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