Bore wrote:Finally on route for Tokyo. Gotta doublecheck all of these recommendations when I get there. Not sure if two weeks is enough to check out all of the places I had planned and to top that off with all of the other things to see.
With my luck I'll hop on the wrong airport limousine and end up in the wrong end of the town.
I've been to Japan many many times, and it's very cool and all, and also kinda trippy at times.
I've also had a sister who lived there and married a Japanese man there and had a child.
Just a few words of caution:
Just be careful with some of the attitudes there towards foreigners.
You will always be treated politely, but this is just part of the culture, it doesn't mean they really think you are a king or anything, they can completely hate a person, and still treat them with the highest politeness possible. The Japanese also have a very difficult time communicating problems, and trying to say "no", so instead they might seem as if they say "yes" about something to you, but it really means "no."
Another thing is that the mentality over there is that foreigners will always be foreigners, and no matter how long you live there, or try to fit in to their culture, they will never treat you as a Japanese citizen.
Also, don't be surprised if you ever come across some bars or saunas saying "no foreigners allowed", this is completely acceptable in Japan, and the Japanese don't seem to understand the concept of discrimination.
My last warning, which I speak from experience from my sister, a situation which happend to her:
If you ever fall in love with a Japanese, make sure you understand that in Japan, the foreigner has no rights to ever see his/her child if the marriage was to ever to be a divorce. The Japanese parent has full custody of the child in every single case. In the case that if the Japanese parent was an abuser to the child, or mentally ill, the court system there would give the child to next closest of kin related to the Japanese parent, rather than giving the child to the parent who is the foreinger, and this rule applies even to foreigners who have working visas, and even permanent residencies. If you don't believe me, just google and see for yourself. Also, if the parent so choose to live abroad with the foreign parent, the Japanese parent is allowed to bring his/her child back to Japan and be protected under Japanese law, forbidding any foreign country to try and bring the child back to the foreign country he was living in.
In the case that both parents were Japanese, the Japanese mother is given full custody 100% of the time, and if she also metally sick, or abusive, etc, the child would be given to the closest kin on her side of the family, rather than to the child's own Japanese father.
Aside from all that, please enjoy your trip. Japan still has alot of cool and interesting things to do, and see, and if you can understand the culture there, and accept it for what it is, then you will be fine.
