ホテルファイン

Well, its been days since I've told someone about the love hotel concept, so I'm here again to talk about the happiest place on earth, Hotel Fine.

Words don't do much justice, so if you click the link
you can see for yourself. I recommend clicking the media and watching the videos.

To be fair, I've only been to ファインガーデン梅田
There are at least 20 more Hotel Fines located throughout Japan. If the name ends in garden, its actually not the best, though it is awesome. If you find yourself if Kyoto, hit up the Grand Fine and be sure to tell me how it is.

I've attached a map to the Umeda location because...why not? Tell them Jon sent you and you'll get a discount.
haha, not really, but wouldn't that be sweet??

Perhaps the most beautiful thing I saw on the website is 24時間365日...I'm sure you can figure out what that means.

Much Love

Kimochi Warui

Has anyone else seen this creepy SOB??? This drumming man robot really weirds me out. It wouldn't be so bad, except the media doesn't just leave him to drum and have his picture taken on the street, they bring him EVERYWHERE!

So, I was watching the Japan movie premier of the new Indiana Jones (which was terrible by the way) and guess who was on the guest list....thats right, this creep ball Taro.

He's on TV, the news, he is basically famous....I just can't figure out why.
In this picture, he is dressed up for the athletic games that were held in Fall 07. I don't really know where I was going with this post, but I guess I'm just trying to say be careful and guard your kids around this guy.....I don't trust him

My Osusume

Its hard to believe I arrived in the greatest country in the world more than a year ago. I'll definitely be going back, and I'm already planning all the things I'm gonna do. For those of you out there who will also be going to Japan in the near future, here are some things I recommend you do.

For the tourist-
Go to Kansai! Kobe has a great port you need to check out. Kiyomizu temple and the surrounding area is amazing, especially in Spring and Fall. Hit up the busy parts of Kyoto as well - good shopping and of course ladies. Tokyo can be fun but don't stay there too long, thats all I'm saying.

For the men - Hit up Karaoke and don't be shy about inviting random people you just met on the street (I've heard many a success story). Japanese clubs can be sweet if they aren't gaijin playgrounds, the clubs seem to have a friendlier atmosphere and your dancing will look awesome compared to the typical Japanese, WORD. Dotonbori in Osaka is quite ballin' at night. Tons of people, lecherous ones at that. I've been told the greatest love hotel EVER is there, Water Hotel. I'll try and put a link to that if I haven't already.

These are just suggestions. But you can be sure I'll be doing these with Chu-hai in hand.

円

Before I start, I just want to thank the world for its terrible economy resulting in a yen to dollar conversion rate of 99 to 1 halfway through my last semester, and I thinks its about that bad now too, just check! It was 118 to the dollar when I first arrived in the great Nihon. I hope it changes before I go back!

Being this close to graduation is making me think about money. Ideally I will find a sugar momma (nihonjin of course) before graduation, but I'm not holding my breath.

One problem I have with Japanese money, however, is that yen is too easy to spend. This is for 3 reasons. Reason 1: The coins go up to 500円(about $5). You are just spending coins so you don't think anything of it. Who knew a handful of change could actually be 30 bucks??

Reason 2, and perhaps the most obvious: everything is so darn expensive. I found myself shocked at how cheap a can of coke (pocari sweat is more like it) was when it was 'just' 100 yen.

Reason 3: You can spend ANY bill ANYWHERE. Yes, 10,000 yen at the McDonalds is okay. Of course, McDonalds is evil so I wouldn't recommend spending 10 yen there, but I digress....

The second reason is likely due to convenience. If you want a Calpis, カルピス ,at 4am and you don't feel like walking more than 10 feet to get it, its okay, there is a vending machine in arms reach. So I guess paying 100 yen for that kind of convenience really isn't so bad. If they just kept the beer/chu-hai vending machines open past midnight then we'd be in good shape.

Moral of the story, take pictures of your yen, you won't be seeing it for very long.

Work

Work sucks, everyone knows that, unless you are the great Cromartie Taro. But if its going to suck, you might as well work in an awesome location. I think, for me, that location is Japan.

No, I'm not talking about becoming a 'salaryman', cause thats insane. Waking up at 5am to get on a packed train (packed enough to require people with paddles and whistles to push and cram people in) then work for 14 hours, only 8 of which are paid, and then doing that over and over 6 days a week sound fun to you?? Didn't think so.

There are quite a few international companies with locations in Japan (and if you know of any good companies, let me know!) so there are many options for working in Japan. When I say Japan, I usually mean Tokyo. Unfortunately, if you do want to work for a Japanese company, you should know about 10 bazillion Kanji first.

As for the picture, this is a pretty common site, and a humorous one.

Benss

Hey,
I just wanted to bring up the various dialects today, or benss. There is an extra 'S' because there are too many friggin dialects. This is actually kinda hard to explain. Japan has a lot of mountains, so in the old days, not much travel was done between the various cities that set up in the little space between all these mountains. As a result, many different dialects formed in the various areas. This is just what I've been told.

Anyways, Kansai, Kyushu, Tokyo, you name it, all have little quirks that make their way of speaking Japanese different. Many people don't even consider Okinawan as Japanese. This is, for lack of a better term, freaking annoying. Once you think you've learned some Japanese you gotta learn 20 other ways of speaking.

Its not as bad as I'm making it out to be. And there is a "standard" Japanese that everyone pretty much knows. Just think of the dialects as a way to spice up your Japanese. FYI, Kansai-ben is probably one of the spiciest of the bens.

If you take nothing else from this post, remember this - A foreigner who speaks a ben is more popular (and well rounded I guess) than one that speaks that boring old standard Japanese.

Peace

Kyoto Summer