Whirlwind tour of Japan

[parawolf]

Well I know i've been quiet on here since we all got started, but i'm currently in Japan for work : Anyway, this place is nuts. Stark raving loony.

Breakfast in the hotel is an extra AU$45 per day per person, using the gym is about an extra $15 per day per person (if you want to use it). Room rate in this average hotel is AU$475 a night. It is equivalent to a AU$125 (discount rate) 5-star hotel i've stayed in many times in Sydney.

The stream of people going ANYWHERE is non-stop. People are start arriving at work at 8am, and people are still arriving at 10:30am. Most, if not all work through until last train home at just past midnight, 5 days a week, and then usually work 1/2 a day over the weekend.

They have 3 different alphabets in Japan. 1 for 'native' words, 1 for 'imported' words (i won't say english because the Japanese use the French words "pan" and "fromage" for bread and cheese respectively) and 1 which uses the more complex "double-byte" characters from Chinese. Now, when buying a ticket for the suburb you want to go to it is often listed in Hirigana (native) for both the destination and the platform, but when you go to find the platform, they are all in Kanji (Chinese?). And since Kanji is about 3000-5000 different characters, like hell i'm going to be able to remember a few apart from numbers. :

Lots of things are expensive here by comparison to Australia. Take electronics for example. A good quality digital camera costs the same if not less in Australia than Japan. I was in a shoe store today looking at a new pair of runners, a set of New Balance that I liked almost gave me a heart attack - effectively AU$275 for an AU$75 set of shoes. Food - oh my lord it can be expensive and it can be cheap. I've already mentioned breakfast, but lunch, get a 'bento' box of japanese food and you can be fed for AU$5. Get a 1 litre of juice to go with it for AU$2. Dinner... wow, get ready for a shock. Often dinner will run into AU$140 with eating local food in a restaurant and some wine per person. However for AU$85 the other night we got two platters of sushi/sashimi plus 4 litres of various beer in 500ml cans and two bottles of wine for 4 people.

Cars. Wow, how many variety of Toyotas could there possibily be?! Mazda? i've seen a handful of RX8's and an escape. Ford? 1 Taurus wagon and 1 Mustang ('99). Apart from Toyotas, and more Toyotas there have been a handful of Hondas (mostly Legends), but this is where it gets interesting... I've seen more Brabus Merc's than regular and AMG's put together. I've seen 4 Ferrari 360's. Saw a lovely white and chrome Hummer H2 and many Bentleys. Yes i'm staying in a wealthy part of town. :evilking:

I reckon i've eaten enough raw tuna to last me a lifetime (and thus probably enough Mercury too), last night I had a hamburger in the hotel restaurant and it was bliss on a plate. But somehow I think it is a very healthy way to live. I could count on one hand the number of 'obese' or even 'overweight' people I have seen in my currently week long stay. Most females would probably be a size 2 or 4 in Australian sizing.

It is funny going to work, or going down to the lobby of the hotel in the morning with my 3 other Aussie work collegues. We are all over 6' tall. So when some poor Japanese person gets in the life by themselves its like :lookedat:

Mobile phones... i'd figure after my experience of attempting to go electronics shopping would be met with the same issues. But boy was I wrong. WAY WRONG. The mobile phones they have here beat our Aussie phones to the ground. They smaller, better, more gadgety. One phone that I like, and i'll be getting my interpreter to read the sheet to tell me if it will work in Australia, has a 2megapixel digital camera, colour screen, memory stick pro duo support, fm radio, usb input/output, and all in something that weighs 100grams.

So here I am... kicking back 10 hours from home, 11:15pm on a Saturday in a hotel, with a wireless mobile phone pcmcia card in my laptop at 115.2kbps which is provided by my company (not costing any more than AU$15 a month). Drinking beer at $15 a 500ml can which doesn't taste any better than VB (not that i'm complaining, at least it isn't American beer).

[lv619]

Sounds like your having a great (although expensive) time their man... how long u their for??

[parawolf]

I get back Thursday morning at 9:30am into Melbourne and then straight onto work. As i'm swinging through Sydney i'll be picking up some Krispy Kreme donuts

[lv619]

mmmmm donuts.... lol

dont they have that sort of crap over their?

[parawolf]

Originally Posted by lv619

mmmmm donuts.... lol

dont they have that sort of crap over their?

McDonalds
KFC
TGI Fridays
Dennys
Hagaan Daaz

No Krispy Kreme in Japan, nor Melbourne....

[Steve_T]

Awesome mate. Sounds interesting. I'm planning a trip to Japan in the near future mainly to go over and see the world expo. Have you or are you going to see the expo while you're there?? I reckon you gotta!! It'd be waaayy too good an opportunity to miss out on!

Anyway, I reckon Japan seems like a real interesting place. Hope you enjoy the rest of your trip.

[parawolf]

Unfortunately I just don't have the time, i'm working 13 hour days 7 days a week. I was meant to be home today (Sunday) but i've had to change my schedule at great expense because progress was slow.

This next statement is not what has impacted the above statement, but a general observation. The Japanese might work 12 - 14 hour days regularly (and thats almost every day), however I think they get less done than an Aussie in our regular 7.25 working hour day.

Japan is an excellent place - and I reckon I could live here, however I think I would eat more vegetable based meals than the amount of sushi/sashimi I have polished off this week. Perhaps more cooked fish too. What I want to find out first... is why can't I get a home loan for a house in Australia from a bank in Japan? Want a 35 year home loan on a 40 million yen house (about AU$600k) it's 2% per annum locked for 35 years!

[Bossxr8]

Considering everything is so expensive over there how's the pay. Being an expensive place to live i'd imagine the pay would have to be high to match?

[GTP 320]

Very interesting read there Ian,it's always good to see how we compare to other countries around the world and how they live in comparising to our lifestyle.
Sounds like a very interesting place to visit for a holiday but it's going to cost heaps of money by look of things ,don't know if i could live there but, and i'm sure that i would miss the big V8s lol. And the language would be very difficult to cope with.
Cheers John

[Steve_T]

From the small amount I've been starting to learn so far, the language actually seems quite an easy language to learn, both hearing and speaking it. The hard part is reading/writing. With over 2000 'everyday' characters in their alphabet compared to our 26, and their characters are much more complex and must be written (drawn) more acuratley than the messy way we can write the characters in our alphabet - some of their characters are made up of up to 20 strokes.

ianmcginley, how 'bout you register a business and register an international branch as operating in Japan. Then the Japanese branch of your business can get a loan over there like you said and make the funds available to the Aussie branch of your business

[BAUTE]

Originally Posted by ianmcginley

McDonalds
KFC
TGI Fridays
Dennys
Hagaan Daaz

No Krispy Kreme in Japan, nor Melbourne....

but they have Mister Donut and he rocks almost as much as Krispy Kreme

and okonomyaki rocks too

[MotherNatureVer2]

Wowwww Ian .... great to hear from you & yet another view from overseas ;)

[conordec]

i've been living in hongkers on and off for near 4 years, love asia... as long as you're getting paid in comparison.. it rocks.

do miss home though.

japan would be a mindblower i'm sure.. have heard aplenty of stories!!

[Homer1]

About the mobile phones, they use a completely differfent system in Japan which is not compatible with anywhere in the world. So my guess is that no phone from there will work in Australia and vice versa.

[big_waity]

My missus lived in Japan for a year, she reckon MR Donut is the most magnificent Donuts in the world! Go give them a try if your missin your crispy cremes!

[BAUTE]

as sad as it is I had them nearly every day