Calligraphy, Japanese girls and Hello Kitty.

[Raylex]

Hello there!

I'm Raylex, global moderator of the French part of the forum! Well, hope you know me :p

Okay so some of you maybe already know it but I'm actually in Japan since last March and except the fact that it's just orsum, I wanna share with you a little part of Japanese culture that I used to know but never practice until I arrived in Tokyo.

So let's introduce 書道 (shodo), the Japanese calligraphy!
(Oh, let's introduce it another day; I've got no time)


I'm not a master but as I practice 4h every week, I can now make something not so bad

[Hunchman801]

My attempt at Japanese:

raylexstinks.jpg (9.61 KiB) Viewed 1107 times

Cool ain't it?

[Cairnie]

Hehe I can actually read the first part of that.

So, how exactly are you getting on in Japan then? I'm only asking because I heard loads of horror stories from Westerners that have spent time there whether it's business, holidays and stuff; but I've heard good things too.

[PluMGMK]

How big are the keyboards there?

[Acarr]

(lol raylexstinks )

Have you bought any square watermelons yet? God, they look awesome.

[DesLife]

Rayl, you should talk about your love for little girls, I'm sure everyone here will be interested. Remember Koto-chan ?
Your attempt looks quite good, though I like Hunch's better.

Stacey, actually Raylex's really enjoying Japan right now, he even wants to study there.

[Raylex]

You know Dedess, she is of course a girl!

My attempt at Japanese:
Cool ain't it?

I would admit it's a good one if it was not wrong

So, how exactly are you getting on in Japan then? I'm only asking because I heard loads of horror stories from Westerners that have spent time there whether it's business, holidays and stuff; but I've heard good things too.

I've really good time! Well, you know I'm an High School student in maybe the best school of Tokyo so really no big problems. In addition I'm making an home stay. Maybe the horror stories your heard were about 上下関係 (joo ge kan kei), the respect between upper grade peoples and lower grade peoples. In a job, seems to be really hard. For me I get used to that. You may find maybe strange that you need to use politess form either for people who are just one year older than you.

How big are the keyboards there?

Actually it's de same but to find Kanji we have to over use the space bar

Have you bought any square watermelons yet? God, they look awesome.

I don't know what your talking about

[Cairnie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 390088.stm
Do they look cool or what!?

Well I heard that things are like REALLY expensive in Japan, I heard from one guy that he spent 10 dollars on a big mac. It's ironic because I hear that sushi is way cheaper over there than it is here [speaking of which I'd LOVE to try these things on the far right]. Then there's the whole thing about westerners being called gaijin; but then again in my country, we always rant about all our foreigners [the Polish, Africans etc].

That said, I've heard that the streets in Tokyo are really clean because most people don't litter [it's everywhere here and I hear it's worse in Paris], and that here and there you can find an English style pub. I mean, we have lots of sushi bars in London, so why not? Speaking of London, many of the Japanese tourists I've been in contact with have been really friendly, like that time I was about to inside the MCM expo last month. Thankfully I knew that arigato meant thank you when they took a picture of us.

[Acarr]

That said, I've heard that the streets in Tokyo are really clean because most people don't litter [it's everywhere here and I hear it's worse in Paris],

I've heard something about a prison sentence if you spit out even chewing-gum. Doubt that's true though.

[Cairnie]

I know that happens in Singapore definitely, but in Japan? I'm not sure. I like chewing gum and all but it's really DO NOT WANT when you get it on your shoe.

[Acarr]

Tell me about it. Also bugs me when people stick them under desks or on traffic light buttons. I'd hate to have it in my hair.

[spiraldoor]

I hate it when I accidentally touch chewing gum under desks or chairs.

[El Dango]

Me too. It happened alot in my old school.

[PluMGMK]

I hate it when I accidentally touch chewing gum under desks or chairs.

There's a guy in my class who has a habit of disrupting class. When he found chewing gum under a chair, it was a minute before he was arguing with the teacher and turning the chair upside down!

[Raylex]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 390088.stm
Do they look cool or what!?

"I can't buy it, it is too expensive," said a woman browsing at a department store in the southern city of Takamatsu.
It was maybe my host mom Actually I never see things like this ^^

Well I heard that things are like REALLY expensive in Japan, I heard from one guy that he spent 10 dollars on a big mac. It's ironic because I hear that sushi is way cheaper over there than it is here [speaking of which I'd LOVE to try these things on the far right]. Then there's the whole thing about westerners being called gaijin; but then again in my country, we always rant about all our foreigners [the Polish, Africans etc].

That sounds strange for me because actually MacDonal is the cheaper food in Japan and sushi are (for good ones ofc) quite expensive. Personnaly I don't like "sushi in box", I always go to sushi bar even if it's more expensive...
I think we should think in another way than our one. For exemple, lot of people (even doctor) said me 鼻が長い, I've a long nose. In my case, it was not in insult but more than a comparaison beetwen foreigner's one and Japanese's one. So far I remember, I had one problem because of my "gaijin's head": one day I was arrested on my bicycle by a policeman

That said, I've heard that the streets in Tokyo are really clean because most people don't litter [it's everywhere here and I hear it's worse in Paris], and that here and there you can find an English style pub. I mean, we have lots of sushi bars in London, so why not? Speaking of London, many of the Japanese tourists I've been in contact with have been really friendly, like that time I was about to inside the MCM expo last month. Thankfully I knew that arigato meant thank you when they took a picture of us.

Tokyo street are really clean, that's true. It's just a pleasure to walk without always watching out for some dog's shit or somethings. I must reconize that Japanese people are the most friendly people I ever met, either in Tokyo

[Cairnie]

I take it that people in France let their dogs' shit on the pavement too huh? Picking it up with a plastic bag and tossing it in the special bins isn't exactly a hard task. They do that all the bloody time here.

Well here, the boxes of sushi I like cost between 1-3 pounds, most expensive one I bought costed £4. You get both the fish ones as well as vegetarian ones, which I always get, though people who don't like fish at all choose those as well so they're quite popular, always running out of stock. Personally I love ones that have omelette in best [I had one that was like, mushroom, egg and spinach wrapped with egg instead of nori and OH GOD that was yummy] though I do like cucumber, pepper, avacado, mushrooms etc. The further away from a major UK city you are though, the less bars there are, so the nearest one to me is like, 10-15 miles away, I've yet to actually go to one. I used to try and make my own at home but I could never get the seasoning right and the bottled ones you get here suck.

OK let's talk about Pocky now. Ever had it? Only time I ate the proper ones were when I got some at the expo last month, back in Europe we sell our own ones called Mikado and as much as I adore them, they tasted noticeably different. I wonder what those "fruit drops" are like, I see them in anime movies like Grave of the Fireflies.

[Acarr]

I take it that people in France let their dogs' shit on the pavement too huh? Picking it up with a plastic bag and tossing it in the special bins isn't exactly a hard task. They do that all the bloody time here.

I hate lazy dog owners... letting their loved ones dump all along the pavements, and then it still being there for days to come. It's horrible and embarissing when you need to walk there; like playing hop-scotch as you go...

But I had a dog once and cleaning up after her was horrible and I rarely did it, especially when it wasn't on the pavement. Can't help it when there aren't any bins around for ages. Once she did it in the middle of some guy's lawn and I was chased after by him, until he caught up with me and made me clean it up. ¬¬

[Raylex]

I take it that people in France let their dogs' shit on the pavement too huh? Picking it up with a plastic bag and tossing it in the special bins isn't exactly a hard task. They do that all the bloody time here.

People things that if it's not in there house, it's not there problems... Thanks everyone to be a real community

Well here, the boxes of sushi I like cost between 1-3 pounds, most expensive one I bought costed £4. You get both the fish ones as well as vegetarian ones, which I always get, though people who don't like fish at all choose those as well so they're quite popular, always running out of stock. Personally I love ones that have omelette in best [I had one that was like, mushroom, egg and spinach wrapped with egg instead of nori and OH GOD that was yummy] though I do like cucumber, pepper, avacado, mushrooms etc. The further away from a major UK city you are though, the less bars there are, so the nearest one to me is like, 10-15 miles away, I've yet to actually go to one. I used to try and make my own at home but I could never get the seasoning right and the bottled ones you get here suck.

Are there sushi bar in your country? You MUST try it! If your lucky, you will have a really great dinner! Maybe a bit expensive but just so yummy I like the one with the egg to, but my favorite right now is surly the one with littles red eggs (forgot the name in English)!

OK let's talk about Pocky now. Ever had it? Only time I ate the proper ones were when I got some at the expo last month, back in Europe we sell our own ones called Mikado and as much as I adore them, they tasted noticeably different. I wonder what those "fruit drops" are like, I see them in anime movies like Grave of the Fireflies.

Yeah I know Pocky and already had it but I don't remember the taste of Mikado so I can't compare What's the "fruit drops" you'r talking about?
Oh, you know Grave of The Fireflie! If you want to talk about Ghibli's movies, I'm your man

[Hunchman801]

I take it that people in France let their dogs' shit on the pavement too huh? Picking it up with a plastic bag and tossing it in the special bins isn't exactly a hard task. They do that all the bloody time here.

It tends to happen less now there are more plastic bags available and fines if you get caught. But yeah, the only problem with France is the French

[Raylex]

I take it that people in France let their dogs' shit on the pavement too huh? Picking it up with a plastic bag and tossing it in the special bins isn't exactly a hard task. They do that all the bloody time here.

It tends to happen less now there are more plastic bags available and fines if you get caught. But yeah, the only problem with France is the French

Agree.

Didn't know there are fines. Is it from recently?