日本語会話: The Japanese Conversation Thread

[Firestorm]

ありがとうさ


Dude, I've been missing Japan for the last 15 years!! So much has changed since the time I was living there. Stuff like...
+ Security everywhere is way more tight/paranoid; like the fingerprint scans at the airport and CCTV in public places... even signs saying that surveillance is there to counter terrorism and crime etc.! So this is what post Sept 11 Japan is like...
+ People aren't smoking as much in public places. In the old days No Smoking signs were purely decorative, now people actually obey them!
+ So many "portable hikikomori" - especially on trains where lots of people are just insulated in their own tiny worlds of their mobile phones. No eye contact or anything! The Japanese have always been recluse, but I think mobile phones kinda make it worse because it means they have an "excuse" not to interact with people sitting next to them (too busy interacting with people online!). Makes them bigger targets for attack too... just as well Japan has such low crime (could you imagine people being so damn inattentive to their surroundings in Australia or countries with much higher rates of assault/robbery?!?).
+ A lot more train stations have lifts now! When I was there last most stations only had stairs. Having lifts makes travelling so much easier when you're pushing a baby stroller around. However since lifts have only been a relatively recent addition to most stations, they can be placed in really inconvenient locations (i.e. the bum-end of stations where you have to circumnavigate half the area just of freakin' get there! Half the time we just went "Ah bugger it" and carried baby & stroller up and down flights of stairs!). But still, a significant improvement over last time where stations with lifts was more of a rarity.

At the Osaka meet when we found some Beast Wars toys at collectable stores like Hero Gangu, I told Odie that when I was living in Japan these toys were current... now that he's living there it's DOTM and TF Prime! (and OTCA^Austran was only about a year old and had less than 50 members!) Sign of the times.

Oh, and this is what I looked like when I was there last (black shirt):

...yeah, before I got all fat and stuff. <sigh>

ごめんな じいちゃん :-P
clearly you've watied way longer than me so I'll stop complaining now
thanks for the history lesson though :-P

I believe so. We didn't actually go inside any of them.


Yeah, unfortunately it started raining while we were there, so we had to leave prematurely and didn't see everything (downside of touring with a baby). But I enjoyed what we did see though. They had this little anime museum which is only about the history of Toei anime No images of Transformers, but they had a historical timeline of Toei anime which mentioned the Japanese G1 TF series (Headmasters et al.). Our camera battery died by this stage, but I took photos with my phone... just gotta find the USB cable for my phone.

I'm putting Ninja Resturant and Toei Movie Vilage onto my list of things to do (toei does 仮面ライダー don't they?)

[GoktimusPrime]

ごめんな じいちゃん :-P

"Turbo-revvin' young punk!"

(toei does 仮面ライダー don't they?)

Yup!

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最終巻：東京 / FINAL CHAPTER: TOKYO

新幹線に乗っていてサウンドウェーブ / Soundwave on a bullet train


ファンタグレープ！ / Fanta Grape!


富士山 / Mt. Fuji




東京の電車の中に・・・ / inside a Tokyo train


食券機 / Ticket vending machine for food at a small restaurant




なります駅。日本に住んでいた時代、自分の誕生日に友達たちと一緒に新宿のシズラーズでメシを食べて、その あと拙者は映画を見に行きたかった、友達たちは「でも日本の電車は１２時に止まるぞ」と言って、拙者と映画 館に行かなかったので自分で映画を見に行っちゃったんです。映画が終わった後すぐ拙者は１１時５０分ごろ埼 玉県の高坂駅までの電車乗車券を買って電車に乗りました。その時、１２時あと誰も電車に乗られないんだけど 、もう走っている電車は最終乗り場まで必ず行くんだと思ったのに、自分は大丈夫だと思ってたんです。拙者は 必ず間違いました！乗った電車は１２時に「なります」と言う駅に止まりました！！　ぐぇええ！みんなはこの駅に電車を降りれなきゃ！電車はまた午前６時に走るって！　しょうがないから拙者はホームレスな貧乏のように駅に泊まったんだ！現金もなかったし・・・（その時代に クレジットカードが使われるところが現在より少なかったんです）；６時間ぐらいそばにいる同じようにどうす ることできなかった銀行労働者と喋って、彼はご親切に電車乗車券の買うために金を貸してくれました。午前７ 時ごろ自宅に帰ってもう寝たかったんですが、豪州にいる家族と友達たちは何回も電話かけて「ハッピーバース デー」と言いたかったんです。１０時ごろ関西から来た友達は他の友達をアパートに来て、その友達は拙者を電 話かけて「速く来なさい」と言うったんだぁ。だから自転車に乗って駅の反対側にある友達のアパートに行っち ゃたんだ。ギャアア！
Narimasu station. (I'll explain the story about this in English later )


御茶ノ水駅 / Ochanomizu Station (Astroboy fans should hopefully get this reference )


猫ガール / Cat Girl


東京タワー / Tokyo Tower








建設者の名前はちょっとヤバイなあ / an unfortunately named construction vehicle


「賞金稼ぎどもめ。クズどもの助けなどいらん。」 / "Bounty hunters. We don't need their scum."


ジブリ美術館のバス / Studio Ghibli Museum bus






ジブリ美術館 / Studio Ghibli Museum














新宿 / Shinjuku




うるさい人種差別主義日本人の前にポーズした白人さん / A white dude posing in front of a racist Japanese guy


紀伊国屋書店 / Books Kinokuniya


漫画フロア / manga floor


新橋駅 / Shimbashi Station


秋葉原 / Akihabara




Cure Peach!