Japan Tourists, What Was Your Best Experience There?

serious redditors who have visited japan what was your favorite or worst experience that you want to share best experience 9 p.m at night drunk as crap in downtown osaka me friends let's get sushi for dinner we haven't even had any while being here random japanese man interjects and says sushi daytime nighttime ramen ended up pushing us into a small ramen shop on the corner of the street where i had the best pork ramen i'll ever have in my life drunk osaka nights are amazing we met this random korean guy on his own who barely spoke any english so it was a lot of charades because he was on only tagged along with us to a bar down the road and we drank many beers and ate lots of chicken at the end of the night the korean guy paid our tab without saying a word and disappeared curry and dan you rocked i stayed in a tiny rural town a few years back and it was very evident many other people they had never met or seen a foreigner in person every day i would walk through the snow to a bakery to get my daily fix and have a lengthy conversation with a nice older lady who spoke no english myself speaking no japanese on the way back i would always walk past a dozen or so children leaving kindergarten who would have all been all under the age of five i would always smile but they would all stop nervously frozen as they watched the white bearded six feet two giant pass after a few days they would spot me from afar and pressure the leader of their pack to greet me and i replied in kind for the next week they would all individually say konnichiwa and bow and i would greet each of these tiny children one at a time while standing next to snow banks taller than themselves they were always very excited and it was hilariously adorable one day i slipped hard coming down an icy hill and they all came running i was sitting on my butt after sliding a few feet quite comically and i remember the littlest girl asking kyojin deja bidasuka giant are you okay i miss that little town a lot that's cute as frick i was waiting outside osaka castle one night for it to get dark so i could take some pictures while waiting i got talking to a retired older gentleman from osaka named kenji we were later joined on the bench by a middle-aged man from tokyo in town on business the two of them got into an argument about who had the more incomprehensible japanese accent both claimed they could barely understand the other person they then started pressuring me to state whose japanese accent sounded better but to me a canadian whose understanding of japanese extended to the basic hellos goodbyes and thank you house there was no noticeable difference at all they were both quite offended i couldn't differentiate between the two and insisted the other was speaking gibberish in the most polite and respectful way possible though because japan it was that day i learned there was a rivalry between osaka and tokyo ha-ha ossicans are known for their accent the ghibli museum was magical i'm not even heavily into the movies but there was something just wonderful about being in that place and seeing the exhibits most disappointing was the whale shark in the osaka aquarium i love the ocean and was so pumped to see it but it was so depressing to see it alone in an almost empty tank there was just sand at the bottom the gift shop at the osaka aquarium was amazing though overall i found even japan's best aquariums osaka kaioken and okinawa which are me to be mediocre and depressing due to the lack of any kind of enrichment in their habitats and often very small tanks enclosures zeus too for that matter i went last november with a friend the best thing about japan was the people they are so friendly helpful and polite people actually went out of their way to help which is something i'm just not used to in fact it was a bit of putting at first because i thought everyone was out to scam me or something but they really just wanted to help i spent five days in tokyo then another 12 days traveling around the country people outside of tokyo were much friendlier than people in it but less likely to speak english i guess that's to be expected anyway they did try their hardest though a young student came over to us when we were eating lunch in kyoto and asked if he could sit beside us and practice speaking english we were happy to oblige and in return he showed us around the area and gave us tips on what to see and what to avoid my most memorable experience was sitting in a bar with my friend in nagano some girl kept pointing to us and then a guy came over and said that girl wanted to talk to me he acted as an interpreter as this japanese girl was asking me all sorts of questions about ireland and europe she was amazed at how tall i was and i'm not even that tall we then had a darts competition and a dance-off all without being able to even directly talk to each other everyone in the bar was getting in on it too posing for photos with us and i kind of felt like a minor celebrity haha fantastic country and i will 100 be back one odd thing that i noticed was that so many people smoke and there are smoking areas everywhere you can even smoke in chain restaurants like dennis coming from europe where smoking is pretty much banned in all indoor areas that was a bit strange but not at all a big deal i couldn't agree with you more i found the people there exceptionally warm gentle and genuinely concerned about the well-being of those around them people had genuine respect for each other the country nature their roles in society elderly children etc even the most menial jobs were done meticulously and with pride i learned some very basic japanese before going travelled there alone for 10 days near the end of the trip when i felt like i hadn't had a real conversation in weeks i stayed at a ryokan in the mountains i went to one of the rakan's onsen hot spring baths that night and a little old japanese lady asked me in japanese if i could speak japanese we had a very broken conversation both sitting there new to the hot spring and it was the highlight of my trip there is totally such a thing as a language bonus when traveling in a non-english speaking country i know a bit of german and a tiny bit of japanese both of these have given me customer service and insights that i wouldn't have had otherwise i live in japan the best thing that i've done here is volunteered at an elementary school it was as much fun for me as it was for the kids i pretty much just played games and let them ask me questions about america i speak japanese and they all told me their favorite things about japan my worst experience was in a public bath i washed myself and entered the bath and some old guys started making pretty rude comments towards me about how foreign people should stay out of their spaces after i told him i understood what he was saying he wanted to talk to me about world war ii the whole thing was pretty uncomfortable yeah i think there are just a bunch of that older generation that still have those terrible axis views and we simply have to wait for them to die out japan did some seriously messed up crap in world war ii they were just as bad as the nazis if not worse just came back from japan i'm impressed at how clean the streets are there is no trash anywhere yes the trash cans are hard to find yet you don't see any trash lying around i know wtf is up with the lack of trash cans it seems like tokyo intentionally makes the city so clean and then hides all their trash cans to fk with you i studied abroad here twice and live here now definitely not the best experience but certainly one of the most memorable me and maybe five other americans went to all you can drink karaoke one night intending to do an all for a friend's 20th birthday after about an hour in some drunk salaryman accidentally barges into our room with his friend in tow he goes hey gaijin then turns to his friends and shouts happily gauging while the friend is trying to extract him and apologize to us we're a little taken aback but at least no one is angry the drunk one then says gagin you must sing with us and gestures wildly to the room across from ours we all look at each other and just kinda shrug and think frickit let's go we stand up to go and the guy yells he then bolts back into his own room the six of us follow his friend into the room and see it's the biggest room in the place there are maybe 12 to 15 salarymen and noel's all wearing their nice suits wondering who the frick we are when the original drunk yells we go and sing with the gage in and put on we are the world all of us are in our early twenties and aren't even that familiar with the song but we sing anyway the entire time we're still getting looks of why are these gayjin kids in here from everyone at the end my friends quickly shuffle out back into our room but the original drunk yell asks you know japanese song at this point i just think frick it let's do this so i nod and he hands me the karaoke selector i put in by the blue hearts and immediately everyone in the room loses their crap they're just excited to sing this song let alone the fact that i can sing it which blows their minds even further it's not even that hard a song at the end of the song everyone is clapping and screaming and i'm just wondering what the frick dimension i've stepped into the original drunk grabs two cups of booze off the table neither of which were mine or his and says gaijin can pay 2 japan and we cheers i then go back to my own room and rejoin my friends i've got other good stories but this one will always stick out since both parties were confused by what was happening and just that one drunk guy thought it was all normal okay the image of you all singing the other world at the behest of a drunk excited japanese guy will light the rest of my dreary boring butt workday been to japan around 10 times there are many awesome things about japan they really respect their jobs and puts in 100 from ceo to the janitor nobody half asses the food omg the food the aesthetics worst experience was when i was stopped by police at night and asked for my passport i didn't have it so they took me back to my hostel then took me to the station and had me sign a form saying i was wrong to not bring my passport and it's my responsibility or some crap like that i'm chinese and the whole thing felt super racist you have to carry your passport at all times in japan as a foreigner of course i didn't learn this until i'd already been walking around without it for a week never got questioned by police oh i visited japan a few years ago in order to meet my source family favorite experience the onsen everyone else has already mentioned them they are truly wonderful they also made my skin smoother i also enjoyed the winter food odin nabiaki mikken worst experience my political family didn't accept me fully according to them i'm only dating my partner because i'm after his citizen status i'm going to marry him gain citizenship and divorce him to escape my developing country i was also told that my opinion is invalid because i'm a foreigner so i bought a laptop on my second visit i was asking really stupid technical questions because windows 7 was about to launch some laptops came with an upgrade and because i had specific technical requirements for school when we hit a language barrier he went to get and opened an electronic dictionary and started translating things for me it was absolutely amazing and would never happen in north america i have a similar experience some electronic dictionary when buying a printer last year a customer service is a real thing that people take pride in and employees and random people will go to great extents to help you you all the crap people talk about japan being racist and xenophobic most of which is true these and countless other experiences where people have gone out of their way to help are really memorable yay everyone takes so much pride in their work there they try really hard to be good at their job every job the people who work on the trains construction workers street cleaners store clerks etc admirable i had always wanted to go to japan since i was a little girl i went in october 2015 and it was the perfect trip highlights taxi cab drivers wear gloves the cabs are spotless the seat backs have white lace in tokyo i got to see the fish market before it closed it's reopening in another location what an experience kyoto was amazing i got dressed as a geisha and realized why in full on geisha kimono it is difficult to smile drink more than a thimble full of water many layers smashing you flat i actually felt the back of my stomach touching my vertebrae the fabrics were rich and beautiful the socks with the toe space your big toe gets its own area for the japanese slippers and the crazy wooden slippers with the heel in the center the bamboo forest with the creaking haunting sounds of the bamboo moving in the wind the bathrooms with toilets with built-in b days in the train stations even not just hotels and the b days that play music or sound so no one hears what you're doing in a public bathroom the bullet trains the trains that have women only cars so no strange men can push against them in russia because it was autumn the roasted chestnuts that tasted of autumn itself the breakfasts with miso soup and fish and tea so clean tasting and different than the typical uso european breakfasts everyone was extraordinarily polite i will go back again hopefully next spring for the cherry blossoms sakura love japan it's not closed yet source live in japan it's an awesome market i spent a week in tokyo in 2004 managed to get around on my own without speaking a word of japanese as the signage and subway was really easy to understand the quirky restaurants friendly people and sightseeing was awesome however it was so00 expensive just crazy in my two trips to japan i mostly stuck to grocery store and 7-eleven food my phone did a possible job translating labels and there was no need to annoy anyone with my lack of any japanese also i found one grocery store with a self-checkout with an english button that was nice i went last summer spent 10 days in tokyo being a big nerd akihabara and that gundam front were major highlights but asakusa and yoji park were the coolest parts for me the bugs out in yoyoji were huge with beetles the size of my hand fat flies and trees that sounded like they were powering up because of cicadas if you can get to yoyoji on a sunday then the greasers come out to dance shibuya is cool to see the scramble and the statue of hachiko but otherwise it was kinda grimy which was weird as everywhere else i went in tokyo was amazingly clean everyone i interacted with was super helpful even with the language barrier not as much of a problem as i thought it would be lots of stuff has english options or infographics however as someone much taller than the average japanese person i would occasionally get some stink iron strange looks from older people on the trains it was super fun even in the middle of the summer texas like heat with humidity and i can't wait to figure out how to go again in the future last september i went to tokyo alone for a business trip going to japan had been one of my dreams since i was a child but in this particular case i was told a week in advance that i'd be going and that i had to find and book a hotel arrange meetings i was attending tokyo game show and i'd have a couple of days off after that i had plenty of good experiences and a few not so bad ones but one that really stood out is the following my japanese is really bad and i could rarely have a conversation in english let alone spanish my native language for a couple of days i had only spoken the word suma as an orga tower and high and i was frankly beginning to get depressed i tried my luck to have a conversation by going to an american fast food chain the waitress asked me where i was from and she was excited to learn i was a spanish speaker she told me she was studying spanish and with confidence yelled yo tengo muncha hambra exclamation point yo quero kama paella i'm very hungry i want to eat paella it was just a ridiculous textbook sentence but it made me so happy to hear familiar words in a place and in a moment where i was feeling so alone that aside being from south america the cultural shock was huge i couldn't believe people left their phones notebooks unattended in public places or however clerk welcomed you with a big smile and then as you left they would bow on your way out whenever i needed help people would go out of their way to help me even if they couldn't understand me i grew up believing that respect is something you've got to learn but in japan everyone tried their best not to bother others most of the time i wondered if i was actually bothering them but they were too polite to tell me the best thing was trying all the different food in osaka lots of things grilled on sticks and beer who could ask for more on the other hand hiroshima was pretty bad not the town but seeing the pictures etc and knowing that my country is the only country that had ever done this and we did it twice i was in japan last spring visiting with my mother we were walking through a pretty large shrine area and there were women in these booths calling people over to taste their tea my mother and i walked over to the booth to look at the samples but the lady grabbed the tray and waved over some high school students she was trying pretty hard to ignore us and i politely asked if we could try a sample in japanese well she gave a big cyan took the tiny paper sample cup and split the sample in half so she wouldn't have to give us a full already tiny sample that was probably my only truly negative experience japan is one of my favorite places on this earth so unique so amazing culture is astounding so to preface this restaurants in japan are mostly separated by meat served not food genre that is pork restaurant chicken restaurant tofu restaurant etc this is both the best and worst thing for people who don't know you could end up stuck in a restaurant that serves nothing you can eat and for groups with people of mixed dietary restrictions you also could run into some trouble but all in all i thought it was really cool specifically one of my favorite things about japan was a small tofu restaurant in kyoto it's deep in an alley and they claim to be one of the first places to start serving tofu the tofu i had there was certainly in a way i have never seen before it was so soft and tender served in a massive boiling chamber with water and spices was one of the coolest dining experiences i have ever had also got to sit on the floor on a mat in traditional japanese style and nothing was in english best experiences have to be 12 different ones my first was when i climbed my fuji in 2012 to watch the sunset completely changed my perspective on life in such a surreal way being so high above than clouds looking at the sun peek out was the best thing i've ever experienced second would be when i went to enoshima with my girlfriend at the time and watching the sunset behind the mountains at the other end of the bay while we sat there taking as much time as i was going away the next day i went with a student group in 1999 it was a total blast but probably my favorite part was the last night there the whole group was drinking and singing along with music at iggy rocks cafe then the owner shows up out of nowhere holding a dog with a mohawk he pointed excitedly at the dog and said iggy went with a group three summers ago some of the highlights the pizza in japan is surprisingly good we ended up getting pizza a few times in various locations and it was all better than a lot of the pizza i've had in the u.s our okanomiyaki chef in hiroshima was great we were chatting with him some of the others were flirting we taught him some expressions in english he sang a little joked around and was just overall amazing the two guys dressed as samurai were putting on a presentation at kumamoto castle and interacted with us and after it was over we could still hang out with them if we wanted and one of the two was goofing off while the other one just shook his head later on i hear a loud bazinga from a distance and sure enough the one samurai is with my friend who was wearing a sheldon cooper shirt yes i know bbt sucks the ghibli museum is worth checking out too tokyo was surprisingly peaceful at night aside from some drunk guy we watched from our hotel we met a little sheba named kainit sakashima and he was such a chill little dog and let us pet him and it was especially endearing seeing him on the boat back to the mainland i still think about him a lot i hope he's having a good day some downsides lots and lots of spiders in the forested areas don't go to southern japan in the summer i nearly fainted there was a giant roach in our hotel in beppu the staff was just like whatever the museum at peace park hiroshima has a powerful message but it is not for the faint of heart i have a fairly thick skin and i still want it to puke if you're a vegetarian like me it can be tricky finding food and in some cases you might just have to compromise so you have something to eat i went to japan to visit my brother in tokyo for two weeks when i was 14. the whole trip was pretty surreal but one part in particular stands out as the coolest and weirdest arcades are insanely popular in japan and i spent a good bit of time frequenting them while i was there i saw one of those prize games with the lights that go around the cabinet and if you stop the light at the right time it drops a corresponding bucket of prizes there was a super sick bucket with a game boy advance and a bunch of games and other nintendo swag i decided to try my luck and to my surprise i won on my first try only it wasn't the game boy bucket i so desperately wanted it was a bucket pack to th r brim with hello kitty stuffed dolls and swag there were dozens of them more than i could even fit in my backpack hello kitty dolls were pouring out of the bin and onto the floor while i was standing there pondering how i was going to collect and transport all this hello kitty merchandise and how i was ever going to convince my family i didn't mean to win a lifetime supply of hello kitties a japanese boy and girl walked up the girl excitedly said some stuff to me in japanese that i couldn't even begin to recount i panicked and extended my hand bearing a gift of a single hello kitty from my bounty she went freaking apple [ __ ] it was like one of those animes or something she was literally jumping up and down and screaming it was then i realized the guy was looking at me very obviously angry but resigned that he wasn't going to be able to do much to someone twice his size and a foot taller i sort of awkwardly stuffed the rest of my bounty into my backpack and walked out of the arcade with my arms filled with the rest dropping kitties every once in a while in my wake the look my brother gave me when he saw me walk up with my arms full of hello kitties was priceless dude was prob bummed you didn't give him one i feel like my experience was totally opposites to men i studied japanese for years and was fluent then moved to nagoya for a one-year study program the people were polite to my face but so rude if they thought i couldn't hear i'm a small white girl 166 cm and 52 kg and was constantly told you're too fat to fit when trying to buy size ale clothing my mom came to visit and i took her to mt fuji where the train guard ignored me asking which station i needed thankfully an old lady came up asked him the exact same question to which he overenthusiastically replied she was very kind and knew what he was doing also it turns out i have a soy allergy so i had to eat pretty bland a lot of the food didn't agree with me out there i enjoyed it when i took two weeks to travel around as a tourist and was treated as such but i felt so isolated and rebuked as someone living there people treated me super well to my face when they thought i was a tourist who couldn't speak japanese they were directly rude when they realized i lived there so many times when are you going home no sooner than that and flat out ignored me when i spoke fluent japanese i wonder what i did wrong was there something about me that came off bad did i try too hard to go out and socialize putting people off so many people have such positive experiences and speak so highly of their time in japan my time was so miserable if you are new to the channel you can subscribe i publish new videos every day until then check another video [Music] bye for now

Channel: Internet Is Fun

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Rating: 4.9248824 out of 5

Keywords: best experience, japan, tourist trap, tourist scams, tourist in japan, #updootst, updoot, updoot reddit, updoot everything, reddit on tap, toadfilms, pewdiepie, emkay, reddit, askreddit, funny reddit, reddit stories, top posts, reddit top posts, reddit cringe, comedy, reddit compilation, /r, r/, r/askreddit, top posts of r/, askreddit reading, best reddit posts, top posts of all time, people of reddit, askreddit question, ask reddit, subreddit, sub, askreddit school, r/askreddit how to

Id: uC1ET_sl0Mo

Length: 26min 28sec (1588 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021