![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Irashai mase!
Apr. 7th, 2007 08:24 pm-Every store employee in Japan.
(Yay for the Japanese workforce! So polite, so friendly, it's almost scary...)
So I just returned from Japan, and I feel about normal right now. I would normally be pumped, but that's cancelled out by the jetlag. :P Sixteen hour time difference, people! However, because of the time difference, we arrived in Edmonton before we left Japan... technically. :) We left, April 7th, at around 19:20, Tokyo time.... And we arrived in Edmonton, April 7th, at just about 17:30. Very cool! :D
I took hundreds upon hundreds of photographs (really broke in my Christmas-new camera) - so many photos, in fact, that I had to buy a second memory card. We got to see women in kimonos text messaging on the subways, we got to walk through beautiful gardens and see amazing temples, we got to visit some wonderful Odori dancers in their own dance studio, we got to see the bowels of the Tokyo Broadcasting Station, we got to ride on the Shinkansen (the Bullet Train), we got to see the (very depressing but very well done) Hiroshima War Museum, the Shika deer in Nara, we got to meet and greet some wonderful girls (and so cute!) from Konodai school, and, of course, Sakura blossoms! :)
It was absolutely beautiful weather there - we were there for twelve days, and it was only rainy for two of them! And on those days, it was the kind of cloudy weather in which the rain spits for a moment, hesitates, then stops (like it can't decide weather it wants to rain or not). I bought a cute umbrella on the first day there, and only got to use it twice! I was almost dissapointed! :P
And, not to forget, we also went shopping. I bought a cheapie tourist kimono, then found a gorgeous (and on sale) under-kimono, then found a beautiful black, used wedding kimono... and I bought it to go with the nice under-kimono I bought. I'm still in need of a better obi, though. I already bought some geta sandals and some tabi socks. I'm glad I have them all, but I have absolutely no idea where I'll wear them! ;_; Oh why must I be born Caucasian! Alas!
Being the anime and manga freak that I am, I bought nearly my weight in books. :) The manga are so cheap over there! I mean, a translated copy (which has no dust cover, and no colour pages, as the Japanese ones do), costs, over here in Canada, at least $15, most of the time. Many times it's more than that. However, most manga is in the 400-600 Yen range. Now, 100Yen is equal to about one Canadian dollar (that's about the exchange rate, right now) - so one Yen is equal to one cent. That means that manga (better quality stuff, too), is about one third of the price over there! They also have lots of second hand book stores (I bow down to the power that is Book Off), and sales going on, so I got them for sometimes less than a quarter of the price!
(But do I understand them, you ask? I'm on my third year of Japanese lessons. I can understand at least half of what's going on, most of the time.... just not (neccessarily) the long converstations/explanations/expository stuff. And the rest? Why, that's what wikipedia is for! :) )
In any case, I had a wonderful time! I'll be posting pictures soon, as soon as I free up some space on the computer so they'll fit. :D
(Yay for the Japanese workforce! So polite, so friendly, it's almost scary...)
So I just returned from Japan, and I feel about normal right now. I would normally be pumped, but that's cancelled out by the jetlag. :P Sixteen hour time difference, people! However, because of the time difference, we arrived in Edmonton before we left Japan... technically. :) We left, April 7th, at around 19:20, Tokyo time.... And we arrived in Edmonton, April 7th, at just about 17:30. Very cool! :D
I took hundreds upon hundreds of photographs (really broke in my Christmas-new camera) - so many photos, in fact, that I had to buy a second memory card. We got to see women in kimonos text messaging on the subways, we got to walk through beautiful gardens and see amazing temples, we got to visit some wonderful Odori dancers in their own dance studio, we got to see the bowels of the Tokyo Broadcasting Station, we got to ride on the Shinkansen (the Bullet Train), we got to see the (very depressing but very well done) Hiroshima War Museum, the Shika deer in Nara, we got to meet and greet some wonderful girls (and so cute!) from Konodai school, and, of course, Sakura blossoms! :)
It was absolutely beautiful weather there - we were there for twelve days, and it was only rainy for two of them! And on those days, it was the kind of cloudy weather in which the rain spits for a moment, hesitates, then stops (like it can't decide weather it wants to rain or not). I bought a cute umbrella on the first day there, and only got to use it twice! I was almost dissapointed! :P
And, not to forget, we also went shopping. I bought a cheapie tourist kimono, then found a gorgeous (and on sale) under-kimono, then found a beautiful black, used wedding kimono... and I bought it to go with the nice under-kimono I bought. I'm still in need of a better obi, though. I already bought some geta sandals and some tabi socks. I'm glad I have them all, but I have absolutely no idea where I'll wear them! ;_; Oh why must I be born Caucasian! Alas!
Being the anime and manga freak that I am, I bought nearly my weight in books. :) The manga are so cheap over there! I mean, a translated copy (which has no dust cover, and no colour pages, as the Japanese ones do), costs, over here in Canada, at least $15, most of the time. Many times it's more than that. However, most manga is in the 400-600 Yen range. Now, 100Yen is equal to about one Canadian dollar (that's about the exchange rate, right now) - so one Yen is equal to one cent. That means that manga (better quality stuff, too), is about one third of the price over there! They also have lots of second hand book stores (I bow down to the power that is Book Off), and sales going on, so I got them for sometimes less than a quarter of the price!
(But do I understand them, you ask? I'm on my third year of Japanese lessons. I can understand at least half of what's going on, most of the time.... just not (neccessarily) the long converstations/explanations/expository stuff. And the rest? Why, that's what wikipedia is for! :) )
In any case, I had a wonderful time! I'll be posting pictures soon, as soon as I free up some space on the computer so they'll fit. :D
