Shama's Return

[Shama177]

Hey guys,

Just want to say thanks to Loony BoB in Admin for sendin me an email to get me back into action on the forums. I didn't forget about this place but I've just been really busy due to being on a university exchange program in Japan.

If anyone has any questions about what it's like here, feel free to post them.

Thanks

[Quindiana Jones]

Agh! Loony BoB's smugness is unbearable!

[Leeza]

First question: do you like life in Japan?

[Rantz]

Do you like... death... in Japan?

[rubah]

do you like Lovers in Japan?

[Goldenboko]

What the hell is going on! D:

[Blue Harvest]

Do you like light in Japan?

[Vyk]

Hi :}

[Luara]

Light in Japan makes me thinner

[Breine]

Welcome back :breine:

What's it like to study in Japan, and where do you live there?

[Shama177]

OK to answer all your questions (keep in mind this is the perspective of someone who's lived in Australia their whole life and never been overseas until now):

First question: do you like life in Japan?

ANS: Hahah, What life? I guess the short answer would be that I don't HATE it, but I don't LOVE it either.
Travel here is expensive but I haven't had time to do much exploring or get much culture experience anyway because of the fact our bekka (Japanese language course) spams us with multiple tests and homework tasks everyday. I'm a scholarship student so I can't really afford to not do well on this course or I'll have to pay all the scholarship money back :S Our dorms also have an 11pm curfew (which annoys the hell outta me since I'm almost 21 and by aussie standards you're an adult at 18). My university/dorm building (in a town called Hiratsuka - south west Kanagawa prefecture) is at least 2 hours away from Tokyo and any other place of note, meaning if I don't want to get locked out of my room, I'd have to leave wherever it is I am at 8:30pm. Class usually ends at around 3pm, so when you factor in the 2 hours travel time, that only means I'd get to spend about 3.5hours out before having to come back home. We also have to go to class on Saturday here. So if you go to a "bekka" course in Japan (not every university here has them) and you're lang skills aren't already pro PRIOR to your arrival in Japan, expect to have to go to class on Saturday.

Otherwise, Japan generally seems TO ME to be a country that focuses on little pleasantries while it kinda disregards the things in a society that are more fundamental. For example, road rules for pedestrians here are non-existant. Every morning the walk to class feels like a battle for survival since cars drive all through the uni and zebra crossings mean nothing here. The flip side to that coin is you can walk into certain buildings or shops and be treated to pre-heated toilet seats and a whole range of toilet functionalities you never even knew existed. Some toilets even say 'arigatou gozaimasu' (thankyou) after you use them (or so I've been told by another foreign student). Having said that though, most of those functionalities are kinda useless to anyone who doesn't like to sit directly onto public toilet seats anyway. And let's just say... the toilets here aren't exactly designed for women either. If you want more info on why I don't think they're designed for women, please send me a private message because it's kind of embarrassing to talk about in a public forum :P.

Ahh what else... There's a crazy high number of vending machines here, some of em even sell icecream. The people here don't seem to eat very much, though. When you go shopping in supermarket, there's no proper trolleys you can use - only little shopping baskets (and if you manage to fill a shopping basket or two on your own everyone thinks your throwing a dinner party or something).

I'm personally not a fan of the cell phones here and I don't feel the myth the world has created of Japan being the most technologically advanced place in the world is well founded at all. Not to sound ungrateful, but the computers at my campus really, REALLY suck. The printing system is good, though. However, most of technology here is designed for use by Japanese people only. They make video games and stuff which is cool, but on a day-to-day basis... ATMs often shut down at 5pm and it's also expensive to withdraw your own money from your own bank, especially so on weekends. There's also a time at the end of the year where ATMs shut down for like a whole week, so if you don't remember to pull a heap of money out before then, you're pretty much screwed because hardly anywhere here (other than BIG electronics stores) accepts credit or bank card transactions.

Alcohol and cigarettes are pretty cheap here, but I don't drink or smoke, so that's kind of a moot point for me. Fast food here is pretty cheap though, and that is actually quite handy.


Rantzien: "Do you like... death... in Japan?"

That's a funny question because the suicide rate in this country is quite high. A popular way to go is by throwing yourself in front of a speeding train. If you do that though, the train company hits your family up with a MASSIVE bill to compensate for the clean-up bills and all of the tickets they had to refund for the passengers who were on that train and ended up late. I mean this in the least offensive way possible, but having studied here now, I can kind of understand why people here would want to kill themselves because of the amount of pressure organisations can put you under. Like in my course, if we score less than 80% on a summary exam (which we get every week), that's treated like a fail and we have to resit. So 79% is a fail by classroom standards (even though on the marking sheet, you'll actually get a B+). Anything less than an A-grade (80%) results in you having to resit the exam - which can get EXTREMELY stressful. But to answer your question, no, I don't like the idea of personally dying in Japan.

I don't know if you're allowed to post up your personal email in these threads, but if there's anything else you'd like to know, just private message me.

Edit: I didn't realise every time you wrote l o l it changes is to "I cried aloud with mirth and merriment" :P

rubah: "do you like Lovers in Japan?"

If you're referring to the Coldplay song, then yeah, it's OK

Hey, Shama177, I merged your posts about this. Please use the edit/delete button if you wish to add something to your previous post. Thanks

[Loony BoB]

That was a very interesting read.

[NeoCracker]

Coldplay sucks.

[Shama177]

Yeah I'll agree that most of their stuff probably does suck - it's all a little fruity, but they still managed to pull off a couple good songs here and there.

That was a very interesting read.

Thanks, but I hate it how, in massive posts like that, no matter how many times you proof read them, a few typing errors manage to escape unnoticed - I meant to write "Not to sound UNgrateful" in the computer section, but I fixed it up now. I LOVE the edit funtion this forum has!!

And how come every time you write "L O L" (without spaces) it changes to that line? Is there a reason for that?

[Jiro]

We brought back the filter for lol because it is better. Welcome back to EoFF!