Ask our reporter in Japan!
- Thread starter Paul
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No, I haven't been able to find any in shops here :cry: You can get Marmite, but even though I love it I can never finish a jar off- I get bored quite easily.
I also miss Galaxy Hazelnut chocolate and those cakes- the ones that are filled with e-numbers and are 6 in a box (2 of each in Brown, yellow and pink), and those Battenburg cakes that are square with pink and yellow with butter cream and a thin coating of marzipan and sugar on the outside :cry:
I'll have to get my mother to send some aid packages for christmas.
If you're under 25 or a student under 29 you can get a cheap ticket from London to Tokyo (Narita) for under 400 pounds if you go at the right time of year.
For example KLM do a youth ticket,
01 JAN 2006 - 14 JUL 2006 from £390
and
01 SEP 2006 - 14 DEC 2006 from £390.
Of course its just the flight, and you'd have to get a hotel and all that. But, its still one of the cheapest ways.
http://www.gendai.co.uk/en/flights_jp.html
I also miss Galaxy Hazelnut chocolate and those cakes- the ones that are filled with e-numbers and are 6 in a box (2 of each in Brown, yellow and pink), and those Battenburg cakes that are square with pink and yellow with butter cream and a thin coating of marzipan and sugar on the outside :cry:
I'll have to get my mother to send some aid packages for christmas.
If you're under 25 or a student under 29 you can get a cheap ticket from London to Tokyo (Narita) for under 400 pounds if you go at the right time of year.
For example KLM do a youth ticket,
01 JAN 2006 - 14 JUL 2006 from £390
and
01 SEP 2006 - 14 DEC 2006 from £390.
Of course its just the flight, and you'd have to get a hotel and all that. But, its still one of the cheapest ways.
http://www.gendai.co.uk/en/flights_jp.html
£400 eh? That is a good deal. Maybe I can sleep in one of those cubicle hotel things that look a bit like coffins or eggs - they're supposed to be rather cheap! Or maybe I can convince my rents that it's an "educational" visit and get them to pay for the accomodation...now that's an idea.
Anyway, thanks for all your help! One more seasonal question for you: is Christmas as big a deal in Japan as it is here and in the US? Do you get frantic Christmas shopping times or is it all a bit more subdued?
Oh and if I ever come to Japan I'll make sure I stock up on Mr Kipling and party cakes and things before I get there :wink:
Anyway, thanks for all your help! One more seasonal question for you: is Christmas as big a deal in Japan as it is here and in the US? Do you get frantic Christmas shopping times or is it all a bit more subdued?
Oh and if I ever come to Japan I'll make sure I stock up on Mr Kipling and party cakes and things before I get there :wink:
It would be best to get a room in a hotel, those capsule hotels are really quite expensive and incredibly small. Thankyou for the offer of cakes
All donations are warmly recieved Thats them
Ooh, I love those little buggers.Christmas
It is big in a different way. Theres no "shopping rush" of stuff like that really. Cakes are very popular though. Most people buy cakes (not your usual European fruit cake, usually something with fresh fruit/cream/chocolate) and it is usually eaten on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is absolutely BORING, its just another day, they don't even eat turkey (by the way- KFC do their best business of the year at Christmas, selling "X-Mas sets", but no turkey).
Christmas Eve however is very important. Couples almost always do something special- stay in a hotel, go to a restaurant, etc...
:?: Why Christmas Eve is so important, I have absolutely NO clue what-so-ever?!?
:?: Why Christmas is celebrated in Japan but, Easter isn't, I have NO clue what-so-ever either?!?
:?: Why Christian festivals are going on in a non-Christian country (X-mas/Valentines), I have... well you get the picture
Women wearing Santa outfits I DO love though :roll:
P.S.- I got myself a new job last week. I start training on Monday at the Imperial Hotel (mentioned on the page before in the reply about the royal wedding), I'll be working on Guest Information
Hope its more interesting and fun than trans/int/loc work Breakfast
Some people eat toast or cerial, others go for a Japanese style- miso soup, natto, rice and stuff like that.
My job is going pretty well, even though theres a hell of a lot of stuff to remember. I work in Guest Services (dealing with requests and passing on messages to guests) and also in Guest Relations (giving advice and information about almost anything). Its a bloody hard job, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon.
Heres where I work:
http://www.imperialhotel.co.jp/index_e.html
Some people eat toast or cerial, others go for a Japanese style- miso soup, natto, rice and stuff like that.
My job is going pretty well, even though theres a hell of a lot of stuff to remember. I work in Guest Services (dealing with requests and passing on messages to guests) and also in Guest Relations (giving advice and information about almost anything). Its a bloody hard job, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon.
Heres where I work:
http://www.imperialhotel.co.jp/index_e.html
Dark Saiyan
Hikikomori
Hi Chris,
I was wondering if you could tell me the most dominant music genre in Japan?
I hear of some of my favourite bands (Bowling for soup, Maximo park) touring in Japan but i was wondering if they are as popular there, as they are over here?.
Thaks in advance
I was wondering if you could tell me the most dominant music genre in Japan?
I hear of some of my favourite bands (Bowling for soup, Maximo park) touring in Japan but i was wondering if they are as popular there, as they are over here?.
Thaks in advance
Music
Pop is the most dominant music here.
I've never heard of Bowling for soup or Maximo park :shock: Western bands are quite popular but they never even get into the top 40, well, VERY rarely anyway. Bands that claim to be or want to be "big in Japan" never are :lol: It's SO funny when I read that somewhere, because you hardly ever hear of any of them here :lol: Sometimes you hear a song by a western band in an advert of at the end of a TV show, other than that... nothing. J-Pop is the undisputed champion.
Pop is the most dominant music here.
I've never heard of Bowling for soup or Maximo park :shock: Western bands are quite popular but they never even get into the top 40, well, VERY rarely anyway. Bands that claim to be or want to be "big in Japan" never are :lol: It's SO funny when I read that somewhere, because you hardly ever hear of any of them here :lol: Sometimes you hear a song by a western band in an advert of at the end of a TV show, other than that... nothing. J-Pop is the undisputed champion.
Bluedragon
Brigade Leader
hi Chirs
i was wondering how hard is it to learn japanese not fluient but enough to hold a decent conversation with someone cuz id love to go there someday but i wanna be able to kind know a little bit fo the local lingo before i become the typical ignorant tourist.
any advice would be a great help thank you
i was wondering how hard is it to learn japanese not fluient but enough to hold a decent conversation with someone cuz id love to go there someday but i wanna be able to kind know a little bit fo the local lingo before i become the typical ignorant tourist.
any advice would be a great help thank you
Looks like you're being bombarded with questions at the moment, but this is a quick one. Honest.
I've recently aquired the knowledge that in terms of speaking about a friend, "-chan" is used for girls and "-kun" is used for boys. However, I have heard the term used rather loosely, as in using it vice versa ("-chan" for boys as well as girls for example).
I was just wondering how strict this rule is, or whether I have the information correct at all!
I've recently aquired the knowledge that in terms of speaking about a friend, "-chan" is used for girls and "-kun" is used for boys. However, I have heard the term used rather loosely, as in using it vice versa ("-chan" for boys as well as girls for example).
I was just wondering how strict this rule is, or whether I have the information correct at all!
Football
Liverpool aren't all that big in Japan, no-where near as popular as Man-U were with Beckham. Most Japanese only like teams who have Japanese players in them, then go off them after the player moves.
Japanese
It's not really all that hard. It would be easier to come here and learn, that way you get to the stage where you have to learn in order to get by.
I'd only recomend buying books that have been written recently, as a lot of books are VERY out of date and use a lot of "dead" words etc...
-Chan/-Kun
I general "chan" can be used with male AND female. However, it is best to use "kun" when talking to males younger that you, and "chan" when talking to females younger that you.
Another thing is in an environment like an office, where both men and women are working most of the time "kun" is used for BOTH (if they are younger than you and in a lower position or just started the job etc...). So, you'll sometimes hear "...-kun" being used to address a women. If the person you are talking to is a good friend "chan" can be used for both.
I guess it just depends on the situation- where you are and who you are talking to. In my job, if I'm addressing a guest, I have to use "sama", if I'm talking to a superior, I use "san", a friend "chan" or "kun".
Another thing, if you work for a company and you are talking to someone who is outside the company (meaning that they don't work with you) you don't put anything at the end of the name. e.g.: "I'll tell that to Ishikawa". You don't say "I'll tell that to Ishikawa-san".
If you call someone by their name without putting something at the end, which is to do something called "yobisute", its not very nice and you can get in a lot of ****, unless you are really good friends.
This is the order of respect: (most to least)
Sama
San
Chan/Kun
(Yobisute)
If you're talking to a politician/doctor/professor/teacher etc... you put "sensei" at the end.
If its a sportsman/woman, you put "senshuu" at the end.
There are loads of others, if you want to know, just ask, OK?
Liverpool aren't all that big in Japan, no-where near as popular as Man-U were with Beckham. Most Japanese only like teams who have Japanese players in them, then go off them after the player moves.
Japanese
It's not really all that hard. It would be easier to come here and learn, that way you get to the stage where you have to learn in order to get by.
I'd only recomend buying books that have been written recently, as a lot of books are VERY out of date and use a lot of "dead" words etc...
-Chan/-Kun
I general "chan" can be used with male AND female. However, it is best to use "kun" when talking to males younger that you, and "chan" when talking to females younger that you.
Another thing is in an environment like an office, where both men and women are working most of the time "kun" is used for BOTH (if they are younger than you and in a lower position or just started the job etc...). So, you'll sometimes hear "...-kun" being used to address a women. If the person you are talking to is a good friend "chan" can be used for both.
I guess it just depends on the situation- where you are and who you are talking to. In my job, if I'm addressing a guest, I have to use "sama", if I'm talking to a superior, I use "san", a friend "chan" or "kun".
Another thing, if you work for a company and you are talking to someone who is outside the company (meaning that they don't work with you) you don't put anything at the end of the name. e.g.: "I'll tell that to Ishikawa". You don't say "I'll tell that to Ishikawa-san".
If you call someone by their name without putting something at the end, which is to do something called "yobisute", its not very nice and you can get in a lot of ****, unless you are really good friends.
This is the order of respect: (most to least)
Sama
San
Chan/Kun
(Yobisute)
If you're talking to a politician/doctor/professor/teacher etc... you put "sensei" at the end.
If its a sportsman/woman, you put "senshuu" at the end.
There are loads of others, if you want to know, just ask, OK?
Chris said:There are loads of others, if you want to know, just ask, OK?
LOL! Indeed I might, but that's quite enough for my mind to ponder over for now! Arigato gozaimasu!
(I think that's "thank you very much" but due to the extent of my knowledge of Japanese (ie: very little) it probably isn't :lol: )I'd recommend you try to learn hiragana and katakana (Japanese letters) so you can at least pronounce words and look them up in a dictionary if you don't know them. Impresses people when you read stuff that just looks like squiggly lines to them, even if you have no idea what it says! My appreciation for anime has increased a lot by just learning the language structure and customs.
Bluedragon
Brigade Leader
wow thanks guys sounds kina complicated but hey nufin worth doing is ever easy.lol
thanks once again
thanks once again
Chris said:There are loads of others, if you want to know, just ask, OK?
How many are there if you don't mind me asking?
EDIT: Actually, if you don't mind, i have another question, well quite a massive question actually about the language, if you don't mind answering.
It's concerning all those little words that go in between sentances. The ones like ni no ga to e there are so many that i can't put them all lol. I know that no makes the word before it possesive, like watashi means i , so watashi no means my , it's also can be used like 's (lol just something i made up that i think is right is yume no yume - dream's dream ^^) lol sry i'm kind of showing off here. Anyway, i recently found that to means and (i think) like Hachimitsu to Clover means Honey and Clover, however i also heard a character say ... ni ..., i'm not sure what the words either side were, but the translation was ... and ...
Thats about all i know concerning these parts of the language. Sry that it's such a massive question :O. Thanks in advance
EDIT 2: I just found a few others now yo mo and how could i forget wa (sum1 told me what this means, it's something like it is..somehting, i don't know, but with watashi wa, i think the wa kind of introduces the sentance, i just forget what it means.
Also, with yo, on the Naruto 6th OP, it says at the start of the 3rd sentance i think... shounen yo... Dattebayo translate this to young man and AnimeOne translate it to Boy. I know that shounen obviously means boy, but what does yo mean, i don't think it is actually young?
A few others:
-dono : not used all that much, usually used in bussiness.
-hakase : used when addressing a professor/etc...
-shi : means Mr/Ms/Mrs/etc..., similar to "san"
A lot of the time, you put the name of the person's job at the end of their name, like with "hakase" or "senshu". Some others are:
-buchou : division cheif
-kachou : section cheif
-shihainin : manager (office/etc...)
-kantoku : manager (sports), director (films/etc...)
-jichou : vice-cheif
-shachou : president (of company)
-torishimariyaku : president (of company)
-daitouryou : president (of country)
-souri/souridaijin : primeminister
Thats about all for now, I think :wink:
What your mentioning is called "particles", you can find some good info at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particles If theres something you want to know that isn't mentioned on there, feel free to ask
One thing that isn't mentioned on there is another use for the particle "no". It's usually used as a possessive but, a lot of the time it is used at the end of sentances as a question marker:
"nani wo tabetai no?"- "what do you want to eat?"
And also used in a way similar to "yo":
"onaka suita no"- "I'm hungry"
To use "no" in this way sounds a lot more natural and casual.
...ni... does also mean "and". It's not used much though, so I wouldn't bother with it at the moment. Just keep it in mind. I've never used it in that way as far as I can remember :lol:
"Yo"
Is used to make statements of urge a course of action.
"shonen yo" means "boy!" or "hey kid!", "datteba yo" means "I told you!".
"Wa" identifies the subject of the sentance.
Slightly off topic but, just to clear something up.
I read something that someone wrote about Honda's slogan "the power of dreams" and how its something completely different and that the original is impossible to translate or something along those lines.
There is NOTHING that is "impossible" to translate. Having done that kind of work for almost 5 years, I have never come across something that is impossible to translate. Sometimes you have to emit or add words that stray from the original, but the meaning it always the same.
Hondas OLD slogan in Japanese was:
"yume no jitsugen ni mukete charenji wo tsutzukete iku chikara"
"The power to keep on challenging and making dreams come true"
The new one is a simplified form of this, "yume no chikara"= "the power of dreams". Where is the impossible in that?? :lol:
-dono : not used all that much, usually used in bussiness.
-hakase : used when addressing a professor/etc...
-shi : means Mr/Ms/Mrs/etc..., similar to "san"
A lot of the time, you put the name of the person's job at the end of their name, like with "hakase" or "senshu". Some others are:
-buchou : division cheif
-kachou : section cheif
-shihainin : manager (office/etc...)
-kantoku : manager (sports), director (films/etc...)
-jichou : vice-cheif
-shachou : president (of company)
-torishimariyaku : president (of company)
-daitouryou : president (of country)
-souri/souridaijin : primeminister
Thats about all for now, I think :wink:
What your mentioning is called "particles", you can find some good info at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_particles If theres something you want to know that isn't mentioned on there, feel free to ask
One thing that isn't mentioned on there is another use for the particle "no". It's usually used as a possessive but, a lot of the time it is used at the end of sentances as a question marker:
"nani wo tabetai no?"- "what do you want to eat?"
And also used in a way similar to "yo":
"onaka suita no"- "I'm hungry"
To use "no" in this way sounds a lot more natural and casual.
...ni... does also mean "and". It's not used much though, so I wouldn't bother with it at the moment. Just keep it in mind. I've never used it in that way as far as I can remember :lol:
"Yo"
Is used to make statements of urge a course of action.
"shonen yo" means "boy!" or "hey kid!", "datteba yo" means "I told you!".
"Wa" identifies the subject of the sentance.
Slightly off topic but, just to clear something up.
I read something that someone wrote about Honda's slogan "the power of dreams" and how its something completely different and that the original is impossible to translate or something along those lines.
There is NOTHING that is "impossible" to translate. Having done that kind of work for almost 5 years, I have never come across something that is impossible to translate. Sometimes you have to emit or add words that stray from the original, but the meaning it always the same.
Hondas OLD slogan in Japanese was:
"yume no jitsugen ni mukete charenji wo tsutzukete iku chikara"
"The power to keep on challenging and making dreams come true"
The new one is a simplified form of this, "yume no chikara"= "the power of dreams". Where is the impossible in that?? :lol:
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