Anyone from/been to Japan?

[Caski]

...long story short, i was watching Tokyo Drift whilst briefly passing through a mates house the other day and noticed in the school lunch scene. the food looked crazy, that sponge looking thing he eats with chopsticks... is that a sweet or a vegetable or wtf is going on?

im interested, i kinda wana live in japan way in the future if nibiru doesn't exist and we aint all dead n all that jazz...

good morrow

[Electric_Head]

My friend works for a large logistics company in Japan.
He started teaching englsih.

He used to send me videos of things.
Octopus moving on the plate, trying to escape just before being cut up and eaten.
The suckers stick to your teeth.

Then there's a small silver fish that they fillet in front of you.
They fillet it so fast the 2 fillets move on the plate after being cut.

Not to mention the live fish that riggle as they go down.

[joeki]

If this thing is yellow and was eaten with sushi, it could be one of many things. I've not seen the movie.

- Inarizushi : yellow pouch of fried tofu (usually only filled with sweet rice). Too sweet for me
- Tamago-Yaki : Traditionally served as nigirizushi: it's egg baked into a sort of dough, it is very similar in taste and structure to french toast and comes highly recommended.
- Cured Daikon : Daikon is usually served in fine slices with sashimi (raw fish), but is also served alot in large cured chunks as a side dish to beer for example. Depending on how it is cured, it gets a yellow colour along with a spongy texture.

those are three yellow/spongy things I can think of right now, my best guess is tamago-yaki as it is very very common.
Japanese cuisine is excellent, but you need to make occasional sidesteps to Chinese or Korean, Vietnamese or Thai to also get some spiciness.

[jameshk]

Always wanted to go out there for a bit, haven't managed it yet.

[Caski]

i eat sushi quite alot, its nothing i've ever seen before lol i'll try and get a pic!

[Sexual_Chocolate]

gonna be there later on in the year, cant wait tbh

[Caski]

man the place looks immense, although even after trying countless PROPER google searches i can't find the flippin thing im talkin about, i just wana know if its a sweet or considered an actual food that just looks crazy lol

swear they have the lowest crime rate in the world right?

[cityzen]

"I lived in Japan for a year, and the crime rate there is VERY low. The first time I realised this, I was walking in a park with my sister and saw a camera sitting on a stump near the sidewalk. I asked her if we should take it to a lost and found, she told me no, that when someone finds something there, there leave it in a prominent place close to where they found it so that the person who lost it can go back and it will be there. This sounded crazy to me but it's true. Throughout my time there I encountered this many times-necklaces hanging on tree branches, jackets folded neatly on park benches. It was astonishing."

Gotta love that.

[LA_Boxers]

^^^^

That sounds awesome. Why cant everywhere be like that??

[jameshk]

"I lived in Japan for a year, and the crime rate there is VERY low. The first time I realised this, I was walking in a park with my sister and saw a camera sitting on a stump near the sidewalk. I asked her if we should take it to a lost and found, she told me no, that when someone finds something there, there leave it in a prominent place close to where they found it so that the person who lost it can go back and it will be there. This sounded crazy to me but it's true. Throughout my time there I encountered this many times-necklaces hanging on tree branches, jackets folded neatly on park benches. It was astonishing."

Gotta love that.

Incredible. Just goes to show what a little mutual respect for your fellow man can achieve.

[cityzen]

Is it mutual respect or a strong sense of honour/aversion to dishonourable action?

[joeki]

Japan's crime rate is so low because of the way its crime is organised. Organised crime (Yakuza) and government corruption are absolutely soaring in Japan. People might think that this only exists in tales in popular culture (manga/anime), that simply isn't true.
Organised crime (especially gambling, prostitution and drugs) are certainly there and widespread and the only reason it is not being targeted by international anti-crime organisations (like the mafia for example) is because they generally don't fuck about with foreigners in Japan (ie Americans, Europeans). Also, they are strongly territory bound and provide income for their governmental supporters at the highest level.
They have networks with Chinese Triads and even North Korea.

Japan has, in other words, a huge hidden organised crime network. But indeed, petty theft and society crimes are very low though. It's a tight knit society and this has grown, in part of their culture and past, but also people shouldn't forget that isolated island nations often display behaviour like this. Confucianism, Shintoism and Buddhism also help this mindset. It's a safe country to be in as a foreigner, and small scale crime (also gun ownership etc.) is among the lowest in the world.

[wobbles]

The notorious goomba crime family headed by the infamous bowser

[Caski]

still sounds like a much better place than anywhere else i've seen/heard of/wanted to live

[Pedro Sánchez]

Went there a few years ago, Tokyo, pretty hectic, expensive and fun, but wondering about I got the sense of a lot of loneliness, the same type of loneliness as London. If you are into tech and video games, then you will love it, and you better enjoy fish and the smell of it.

[finji]

Went there a few years ago, Tokyo, pretty hectic, expensive and fun, but wondering about I got the sense of a lot of loneliness, the same type of loneliness as London. If you are into tech and video games, then you will love it, and you better enjoy fish and the smell of it.

How do you mean loneliness? You mean just kind of businesses/working everywhere and nothing else? im intrigued.

[kay]

I think even people who don't normally like fish/seafood will gain a better appreciation for some of it once they've been to Japan.

[joeki]

Went there a few years ago, Tokyo, pretty hectic, expensive and fun, but wondering about I got the sense of a lot of loneliness, the same type of loneliness as London. If you are into tech and video games, then you will love it, and you better enjoy fish and the smell of it.

How do you mean loneliness? You mean just kind of businesses/working everywhere and nothing else? im intrigued.

A city of 30 Million people and most people don't seem to even talk to each other. They've all got their phones on, are sleeping of their hangover in Mcdonalds at 5am waiting to go to office again, or spend several hours a day commuting from their prison-like blocks (that stretch for miles and miles outside of the city centre, it really reminds me of the breeding grounds in the 'matrix'). It generally is a lonely city I very much agree. It seems like all people are just caught in its massive neon headlights like an animal at night. The young Japanese people move their for work from their rural backgrounds and at first don't know anyone there (or only people from work, and then work becomes life). A lot of the foreigners there don't speak the language and are also there only for work or tourism. So they seem to stick to together as well.

It's good to be in Tokyo for a week. It's got entertainment, night clubs, wider (foreign) culture. But I never spent more than a weeks time there. Same with London really.

[incnic]

going for a month tomorrow and thought DSF would be the bext place 4 tips

looking for any pointers towards any local tchno nights, or anything smaller and banging really. as long its its bangen and raving im up for checking it out

pls give me some pointers about where i might find this kind of info - havent had the best luck so far online.
im in tokyo, kyoto, osaka and a few places in between (inc naoshima art island wwooooii)

[joeki]

this is a good club in Tokyo, or atleast, it was a good club I haven't been there in two years.

http://www.womb.co.jp/#!/schedule/index.html

should check out the schedule and see if there's anything you like.

It requires membership and has finger/photo ID and is expensive as hell (and only has cans instead of glasses) if I remember correctly. But it's a multi-level club. I spent NYE there once with some drum & bass bullshit. They were infamous for minimal techno back then.