Life in Japan - Pictures galore !! Arcades, Temples, Rainy days, etc

[Tatsujin]

Someone told me the safest place on the road is behind a police car.

Maybe the safest, but also the most slowest.

[subbie]

Something I always see done durring japanese arcade shows, that places like GDC/E3/PAX really should pick up doing, is wiping down everything before the next person gets to come in and touch things. We just had 2 coworkers come back from GDC and both got stick while there. *shrugs*

Man the pictures in this topic make me feel like I need to hurry up and get my ass to japan sometime in the near future. Hopefully I'll get the chance this year during TGS due to work or next year with my wife when we go visit her family in china (she too wants to go to tokyo for 3/4 days).

[Yakumo]

I don't understand why people driving in their car still wear a mask. It's not as if they are saving anyone from catching a cold in the car.

[DarkSynbios]

I hope will be soon there^^ Chiba Narashino :P

[GaijinPunch]

Late mask note: Anyone western ever wear them (and not in Japan)? I've thought them to be a good idea, but don't want to look like a total clot or Otaku douche.

If I start my job at the local post office (Data entry, basically typing in failed scans of mail all day), I'm going to deeply consider it as I'll be working on semi-public computer terminals regularly.

If you have a dry throat, they come in very handy. They act as a filter, and will definitely make breathing over an extended period better. Other than that, I'm of the train of thought that giving your immune system a work out is a good thing. Apparently the 150 million people living here think otherwise.

We just had 2 coworkers come back from GDC and both got stick while there. *shrugs*

Sanwa or Seimitsu?

[hashiriya1]

Nah, that's the most annoying because you have to drive at a snails pace. I hate being stuck behind a police car.

Yeah, true. But when driving in Tokyo, you'll never drive faster than a snail's pace...unless on the shutoko.

[hashiriya1]

Faster to walk? (Driving around Numabukuro, Nakano-ku).













The headless woman! (Yamagata City)











My car is in here somewhere! (Utsunomiya Toyoko Inn parking 'garage', Tochigi Prefecture)












Which way should I go?










Irony? (Fukushima, Tohoku Kousoku)










Killers. (Oga Peninsula, Akita Prefecture)









The Breakfast of Champions. (Somewhere in Akita Prefecture)






The Uyoku never stop (Makuhari Kaihin, Chiba Prefecture)






The best unknown retro game shop in Ishikawa Prefecture

[Yakumo]

Other than that, I'm of the train of thought that giving your immune system a work out is a good thing. Apparently the 150 million people living here think otherwise.

That's because they are idiots and believe filling your body full of chemicals is good. Just look at all the genki drinks and pills. Just go to bed and rest for fucks sake.

I only take medicine if I'm really ill, never wear a mask and never take genki drinks. Yet I'm pretty healthy while all the idiots with masks, doped up to the eyeballs in chemicals and gulping down genki drinks are always falling sick. I honestly do think that if a disease epidemic hit Japan tomorrow you'd se all the Japanese dropping dead long before the foreigners.

yakumo

[Yakumo]

The best unknown retro game shop in Ishikawa Prefecture

The Chameleon Clubs down here are a joke when it comes to prices. Everything is way over priced :shrug: There's another chain called famicom World who again live in a dream world that can charge 5600 yen for a sunfaded copy of Digital Dance Mix for the saturn :drool

[Martin]

That's because they are idiots and believe filling your body full of chemicals is good. Just look at all the genki drinks and pills. Just go to bed and rest for fucks sake.

I only take medicine if I'm really ill, never wear a mask and never take genki drinks. Yet I'm pretty healthy while all the idiots with masks, doped up to the eyeballs in chemicals and gulping down genki drinks are always falling sick. I honestly do think that if a disease epidemic hit Japan tomorrow you'd se all the Japanese dropping dead long before the foreigners.

yakumo

God you're grumpy!!

The Japanese life expectancy is the highest in the world though, so I think they have the last laugh.

[GaijinPunch]

The Japanese life expectancy is the highest in the world though,

1 word: Green tea and diet.

Yakumo, even as much of a grumpy old man as he is at roughly the same age as me, has a point. When you've lived here about... 6 months you'll appreciate it. The usual response to even the slightest hint of illness onsetting is to go to the hospital. It is the downside of cheap health care mixed with innate hypochondria. The fact that "time is money" has no meaning here does not help the situation (read the dental thread). Most of the medicine is placebo as well.

The diet really is the key though. Even now, washoku is about the only thing you can eat out at a restaurant that is truly healthy. Low fat, Low calorie, often high protein, medium carb, and all kinds of other shit like iron. The only problem is the standard breakfast is missing fiber and quite often protein.

so I think they have the last laugh.

They actually have the one of the lowest ranking quality of life though. So... laughing they are not.

[Legion]

earthquake!!!!

again out in Odaiba

Yeah green tea unfortunately is bad for me :/
Contains caffeine ...so frustrating
japanese food ( washoku ) in any case is good for me.
I eat Tofu as my brunch and afternoon snack

[subbie]

Sanwa or Seimitsu?

:confused: What does arcade parts have to do with GDC (Game Dev Conference)?

btw, my cab is Sanwa but I accidentally bought square gates and not oct gates. :banghead: I've been too lazy to fix it ever since.

Speaking of arcade stuff, I need to take the Mr Driller G I got in my last package in to work to play on my cab (jpn candy cab at the office, JVS supergun at home).

[Martin]

Just after my first earthquake in Japan, I fired up TV on my phone to see that it was a magnitude 7.3 in Sendai (North of Japan). The phone had an alert just before the earthquake struck

[GaijinPunch]

:confused: What does arcade parts have to do with GDC (Game Dev Conference)?

Reread -- was poking fun at your typo.

[subbie]

Reread -- was poking fun at your typo.

:banghead: Hardy Har Har :redface:

[Martin]

1 word: Green tea and diet.

Yakumo, even as much of a grumpy old man as he is at roughly the same age as me, has a point. When you've lived here about... 6 months you'll appreciate it. The usual response to even the slightest hint of illness onsetting is to go to the hospital. It is the downside of cheap health care mixed with innate hypochondria. The fact that "time is money" has no meaning here does not help the situation (read the dental thread). Most of the medicine is placebo as well.

The diet really is the key though. Even now, washoku is about the only thing you can eat out at a restaurant that is truly healthy. Low fat, Low calorie, often high protein, medium carb, and all kinds of other shit like iron. The only problem is the standard breakfast is missing fiber and quite often protein.

Completely understand and even agree. He is a whinger though! Must be the Brit in him ;)

I'm loving living here; I am doing something I have wanted to do for ages. Whilst it's far from perfect (nowhere is), I know that I will get more of a culture shock returning home to the UK than I am having right now. I'm a massive whinger about the UK, so it all evens out!

Yakumo's right though. They can't drive (though the brits can't either IMO), they cycle everywhere like loonies, they don't hug each other but will press up against each other on the train... list is endless!

The food here's really sorted my digestion. Though I think the stress of my Ph.D didn't help much back in the UK. We eat out about 5 nights a week here in Japan, and love it. It's like a massive city-break (but with 9-7 work thrown in).

[ASSEMbler]

Japan is in for some real bad times once their debt bubble bursts and population disaster hits.

[Yakumo]

Completely understand and even agree. He is a whinger though! Must be the Brit in him ;)

Remember, I was once like you as was GaijinPunch, DCharlie and probably every other foreigner living in Japan but after a few years you soon begin to realize things are not as rosy as you once though and many things are basically in internet language, WTF :nod: Just stay here about 5 years and come back to this thread. You'll think, "that grumpy old git was right" :thumbsup:

[hashiriya1]

The Chameleon Clubs down here are a joke when it comes to prices. Everything is way over priced :shrug: There's another chain called famicom World who again live in a dream world that can charge 5600 yen for a sunfaded copy of Digital Dance Mix for the saturn :drool

That location was selling things at reasonable prices. I picked up a bunch of decent Super Famicom games for 80 yen a pop. I got Layer Section (Saturn) for 500 yen and a bunch of really cheap PCE stuff. I think the best deals I got there was a Ascii fight pad for Dreamcast for 800 yen and a Skeleton Saturn for 2500 yen.

It probably varies from location to location much like A-Too/Book Market.


Famicom World is a joke. I went to one in Saitama. Never again.