All About the Nihonjins
Well, for starters, I lived there for five years teaching English as a second language. For a while it was good, and then it wasn’t. I taught just about everyone from senior citizens to kindergarten. I’ve taught classes of just one student, and I’ve taught classes containing 80 students. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it wasn’t.
Japan is an amazing place! There is literally something in it for everyone, and it’s not hard to find what you like. Are you a nerd like me? Check out the Tokyo Game Show, (a huge entertainment expo) with all kinds of new gaming technologies from Playstation 3, Xbox 360, even cell phone apps! But you won’t see anything from Nintendo. They got their own big show. You can also check out the booth babes like I did. I almost scored a date with this girl, but you gotta be bold.
Also along the nerdy trend, you can visit Akihabara and get all kinds of great deals on electronics and see all kinds of Anime in the works. And when you're finished doing that, stop in at a cosplay cafe where the waitresses dress up as french maids and other colorful anime characters and serve you coffee and cake. Heck, they even have a few stores that sell table-top RPGs (Look for the store, Yellow Submarine)! Are you a big fan of Gundam? Have a look at the Bandai Museum in Tochigi Japan. They even got a Gundam café there!
Maybe you’re an outdoorsy person. You like hiking and climbing? Check out Mt. Fuji. The view from the top as you see the sun rise is spectacular! Like camping? Have a look at Chichibu National Park in Saitama prefecture, an hour-and-a-half train ride North of Tokyo. I’ve gone white-water rafting there, and the scenery is fantastic! I even saw an eagle soaring above our raft as we passed down the tranquil river in Nagatoro.
You a history buff like my dad? Japan has wonderful museums and ancient buildings to see. My personal favorite is Nara Park in the city of Nara. Nara Park is the home of Todai-Ji, the largest building in the world made out of wood, and houses the largest Buddha statue in the world. The building was even bigger 500 years ago, but thanks to a fire, they had to rebuild it a little smaller.
What is extra special about Nara Park is that there are about 1,000 deer roaming free in the area and they’re completely tame! You can feed and pet them, and they can be quite affectionate (maybe a little too affectionate sometimes). There are vendors that sell deer crackers called, “shika sembei” which you can feed to the deer. And if you bow to the deer, they’ll actually bow right back!
As for Kyoto, some people like it, some don’t. Some say it’s gorgeous (myself included) others say it’s too commercialized. Whatever, I’m easy to please. In Kyoto, my favorite temple is Sanjūsangen-dō, and no, I didn’t just sneeze. Sanjūsangen-dō (which literally means hall with 33 spaces between columns) is a Buddhist temple that houses one thousand life-size statues of the Thousand Armed Kannon (goddess of mercy, also known as Guanyin) which stand on both the right and left sides of the main statue in 10 rows and 50 columns. Around the 1,000 Kannon statues stand 28 more statues of guardian deities. They say that each statue is slightly different from each other, and if you look long enough, you’ll find one with a face that looks like yours!
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| I wasn't allowed to take a photo, so I took a photo of the brochure |
What about the night owl in you? Japan has some of the wildest night clubs and bars in the world! If you want to party, check out Roppongi, Shibuya and Shinjuku, basically in that order. You can enjoy hip hop clubs, techno clubs, I’ve even heard of a reggae club. You can go there and drink till your heart’s content, meet some beautiful women and men, and kick back after a long day of fun and sightseeing.
Yes friends, Japan is a GREAT place to visit… But I wouldn’t want to live there anymore.
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