Keeping these different phrases and meanings in mind, would it not be more useful to say "wo ai ni" for I love you, or is anata ga suki simply more common in the language?

We have gejigeji-like critters in my apartment in Chicago; house centipedes. but they eat stuff like spiders, bedbugs and silverfish, so they're a-ok with me.

a little creepy, but as long as they stay out of my bed, I'm ready to live *with* them...

The funny thing? I saw them in the US this weekend. Interviewed them too. It was awesome.

And I concur on the limited English skills. But that didn't matter--Yoffy tried. He also noted how "Gaiking" sounds like "Burger King" but that's another story.

And Power Rangers !=Super Sentai.

Ok, I'm a foreign female in Japan, have been here for a year and a half, and my husband is Japanese. Yeah, I get stared at a lot but that doesn't really bother me anymore. I knew when I moved here that foreigners are still a relative novelty, especially in the country or areas like Tohoku where there are little to no foreigners. I've never been assaulted and I've never been followed home to my knowledge. I used to live in Montreal and close to Toronto, and all of those things and worse have happened to me there. I never see strung out crackheads on the streets in Japan like I do in Montreal, no one has ever asked me if I want to buy drugs like in Montreal, and I have no fears about walking around alone at night as I do in Montreal. The few times I've been to bars that are advertised as "foreign friendly" in Osaka I've been felt up, etc. by strange men....all of whom have been foreigners. I left the West to escape the macho and aggressive male behaviour and have, for the most part, been treated with respect by the Japanese people that I meet. Everyone's life experiences will of course differ, regardless of where in the world you live. "Safety" is sometimes due to luck, sometimes it's due to common sense. My husband is the nicest person I've ever met, and I thanks whatever gods there are in the universe that I was able to come to Japan to be able to meet him. I feel badly for foreigners who have bad experiences here, but on the other hand they should ask themselves what they were expecting in the first place and perhaps not believe everything they read. Perhaps foreigners would do well to drop the attitude that they should be treated as special or like celebrities, or that Japanese people should be grateful that they deigned to visit their country for financial gain or whatever other motivation (re: foreign guys trying to bag Japanese girls in the hopes of gaining a submissive and exotic wife to brag about in their home country). The writer of the article failed to mention whether it was a foreigner or a Japanese national who punched his friend in the face. I've never, ever seen Japanese nationals being violent in public or in bars, and I've been to many bars and clubs in Osaka and Tokyo. I don't expect to never have any problems in the future, and I sometimes worry about the kind of problems any potential children I may have will face, but these are issues I would still have in Canada being in a mixed race marriage. Racism is still alive and well in the West as well as the East. All in all, the world is a violent and strange place regardless of where you are and that is something that will never change unless we, as a global human race, strive for positive change. Until then I will continue to be as cautious as I would be in my hometown regarless of how "safe" things may seem and pray that I be allowed to live a relatively peaceful and drama-free life.

Hey :) That's a great experience and very well written. I'm tall too and i was in thailand had a simliar experience. A tall white girl was the best thing since sliced bread to the Thai people. haha. You didn't say how tall you were. I"d guess 6'8? HOpe to hear from you :)

The three levels of Mizu~shobai from my experience basically are:
1. Kurabu "Club"
2. Lounge
3. Snack
Depending on the "system" of a lounge you can get pretty drunk if you pound them down in the alloted time frame. You may also get to sit with a great hostess in rotation, added minutes extra. However if you go to a club no matter how great your japanese, if you look gaijin, they think they are doing you the favor by giving you the engrish speaking girl. My advice is to find a good snack that all the hostesses go to afterwards to party because most mizu~shobai's have to close more or less by midnight.

Hello! great idea of color of this siyte!

This is cool! I really wanted to surf while I was in Japan, but never got the chance to.

Great profile Jono4422 - Look forward to your next article!!

I take exception to your glee at having "free" dental care in Japan. As a resident since 1998, I would not have my dog worked on by any dentist in Japan. I met a university professor of dentistry in 2004, he was educated in Japan and the USA, he said Japan was 20 years behind the developed world in dentistry. One quick look about and one can see the low quality of dental work, heading to Tokyo and having dental work done by the local western trained dentists is very, very expensive. Get dental check ups and dental work done outside of Japan. Take care of your teeth and the often neglected gum area. I find it a tough spot without my yearly vacation to Canada and the dental check-up and cleaning.

Look for travel health insurance if visiting Japan for a limited amount of time, say 30 days. I had travel insurance for two years in Yokohama, my workplace bought it for me. They said it was fine, I was covered for the two incidents during that time. I think the insurance was not on the up and up though, just a feeling.

Steve

I tried the cucumber soda! I expected it to taste like carbonated Nair, but it wasn’t nearly that dreadful. It tasted more like carbonated Nerds candy. Although, I haven’t seen a single flavor of Nerds candy that was “cucumber.”

The heavier rains in Okinawa will actually be down to it being "rainy season" here. The rains will die down in a couple of weeks (touch wood) and then the typhoon season will probably start up soon after that.

A 6 pack of Asahi will set you back $19.00 AUD these days in Australia.

Finally, someone admits it!

You hit the nail on the friggin head with this one. Kudos!

---snip--- I would like to believe that the driving community is ‘civilised’ enough to ‘get out of the way’ in such situations and I am sure that they would still do so without the braying.　---snip---

note -- It isn't just firetrucks, I've seen plenty of ambulances "stuck in traffic."

Unfortunately, such is not the case. There are, true, some drivers who get the idea and will do their best to move out of the way for emergency vehicles.

Sadly, these drivers are fairly far and few between. I have considered starting a "campaign" to bring awareness to this issue several times, but lack the funding, experience, and time to do more than consider it.

In the meantime, all I can do is try to lead by example, and hope the emergency vehicles get where they are going in time.

I, too, absolutely love this country, and that is one of the very few things I wish I could change. (total is 3 things, this subject, helmet law, and our good friend MJ.)