What's Japan like?

At school, we learn to speak Japanese. I can speak a bit of Japanese. We also have to learn about their culture and traditions and stuff like that. It seems like a very different place from where I live now.
 
As I said I post up a fw pics now... they are resized to fit imageshack.us and of course I only can select a view of several thousand we made in this trip.
I and 3 friends were 14 days in Japan in September 2004, 6 days Tokyo, 7days trip on Honshu with a rented car ( Nikko, then crossed the Japanese alps to noto peninsula, down to Kyoto, Nara, then Osaka, back to Fuji and then over Izu peninsula back to Tokyo where we spent the last day and a half... )


View on Odaiba from the Tokyo Tower


View on Shinjuku from the Tokyo Gov. Office Building


Izu peninsula


View from the Japanese alps onto Kantoarea, Nagano prefecture ( pic is low quality, out of the let's see your desktop thread )



view from the Umeda Sky building in Osaka ( pic is low quality, out of the let's see your desktop thread )

EDIT : links fixed
 
Nice pics. 👍 Shinjuku looks overwhelming with all those buildings. When the next mega-quake hit the Kanto area, it's not going to be pretty with all those structures so close to one another. :scared:
 
a6m5
Nice pics. 👍 Shinjuku looks overwhelming with all those buildings. When the next mega-quake hit the Kanto area, it's not going to be pretty with all those structures so close to one another. :scared:
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Don't you say sth like this :( ...Nah, I think that most building sin Tokyo can stand hard earthquakes, it's really a new problem... Especially the large ones, but as we've seen in Kobe there wills till be a lot of damage... But I tell you sth, that would hurt everybody, not just Tokyo fans. A heavy earthquake in the Tokyo area is one of the worst case szenarios of international financial experts, banks and investment cooperations. Tokyo is the strongest financial area in Asia and after such an earthquake Japan would rebuild Tokyo with money that is now invested elsewhere...to a huge degree in the USA for example...
 
If a big earthquake hits with the epicenter in Tokyo, they estimate 200,000 people will be killed. With the amount of rivers flowing through the city, and the structures built on top of them, there is going to be a lot of things collapsing. Any new buildings are built with state of the art anti-earthquake technology to withstand, but the old buildings are not prepared. Also, there has been a problem in the last year or so where construction companies have built buildings which are not up to code because the architect forged the designs. How many other buildings around town are not up to spec is the big question.

Great pics. I have some pics on my blog you are all welcome to look at. If you wish to see Hokkaido, Nikko, Ogasawara, the Ueno Zoo ;), etc.

Click here
 
Max_DC
Don't you say sth like this :(
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:lol: I know, but I'm passed worrying about it now, since it's really considered matter of time, before it hits. Same goes for eruption of Mt. Fuji. It might sound bit paranoid, but one of the reasons why I chose not to return to Japan was due to the inevitable natural disasters. Granted, it might not happen in our lifetime, but I am from Kando area..........

speedy_samurai
Great pics. I have some pics on my blog you are all welcome to look at. If you wish to see Hokkaido, Nikko, Ogasawara, the Ueno Zoo ;), etc.
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Believe it or not, I got to go to the Ueno Zoo just once when I was a little boy(damn my parents). :( 'Til This day, Ueno is the only major zoo I have been to. I remember the "Lion Bus" and the gators the most. :scared: I enjoyed your Hokkaido pics also. 👍
240^drift
wow those look crazy!
whats the estimate on how many people live there?
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In the entire Tokyo, little over 12.5 million. According to wikipedia.

Edit: I'm all for Australia thread. One of the most beautiful and unique countries in the world(according to me).
 
Having lived there for 10 years of my life, I can tell you this:

- Don't go to the (public) school system. They make boys wear short shorts during winter with minimal heating, which is done by a 20-year-old kerosene stove.
- They emphasize academics and grades over personal preferences and individual uniqueness. Therefore you cannot aspire to become an artist unless you take out-of-school lessons, since they hardly teach you to be artistic.
- They have the latest gadgets so that's good.
- Polluted. A lot, especially if you live in the three major urban areas- Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo. Very populated so not a place for people who hates crowds.

Well I might be off on some details but that's how I remember my 10 years of life in Japan.
 
GT4_Rule
Having lived there for 10 years of my life, I can tell you this:

- Don't go to the (public) school system. They make boys wear short shorts during winter with minimal heating, which is done by a 20-year-old kerosene stove.
.
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Wow, thats like Hunter! The gym clothes are short shorts, and if I pull them up you cant even see them, and there's no heat. Not that it needs any more.
 
GT4_Rule
- Don't go to the (public) school system. They make boys wear short shorts during winter with minimal heating, which is done by a 20-year-old kerosene stove.
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Those are some of my fondest memories of Japanese Elementary School. :D One year, I was stuck closest to one of those monster stoves. It was unbelievably hot that winter.

P.S. I like how Japanese kids have to help out with school choirs. They help serve lunch, clean their classroom and then some. They also don't get air conditioning(at least in grade schools). That's how grade schools should be ran IMO.
 
a6m5
Those are some of my fondest memories of Japanese Elementary School. :D One year, I was stuck closest to one of those monster stoves. It was unbelievably hot that winter.

P.S. I like how Japanese kids have to help out with school choirs. They help serve lunch, clean their classroom and then some. They also don't get air conditioning(at least in grade schools). That's how grade schools should be ran IMO.
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Ohh then you got away lucky a6m5! I was never close to the stove therefore I was shivering basically the whole day! Short shorts never help either...plus I remembered it now, now that you mentioned it....my school was no exception, we had to wipe desks, clean floors, serve lunch, and perform other specific duties around the classroom.
 
GT4_Rule
Ohh then you got away lucky a6m5! I was never close to the stove therefore I was shivering basically the whole day! Short shorts never help either...plus I remembered it now, now that you mentioned it....my school was no exception, we had to wipe desks, clean floors, serve lunch, and perform other specific duties around the classroom.
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Not lucky. It was too damn hot.

And remember those nasty "zoukin" rags? I always wondered why I have such strong back and legs. I think it's from pacing end-to-end, cleaning classroom floor with those things. So much fun. :indiff:
 
a6m5
Not lucky. It was too damn hot.

And remember those nasty "zoukin" rags? I always wondered why I have such strong back and legs. I think it's from pacing end-to-end, cleaning classroom floor with those things. So much fun. :indiff:
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Cleaning classroom floors is sort of like bunny hopping - it kills if you do too much. Heck, I'm just glad I only had to do that for 4 years! :ouch:

My teachers were nice though 👍 Although pretty strict.
 

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