1. Talk to Japanese People

Now is your chance!  Do it now!  Speak to strangers in Japanese without getting one word answers in return!  As some of us have experienced, it can be very hard to have a real conversation with Japanese strangers in public because of their inhibitions about talking to foreigners, and especially the chance that they might have to use English.  Thanks to the power of alcohol and the loss of power of societal expectations, if you talk to a Japanese person in a drinking establishment you will likely get a longer answer.  Occasionally, they will even come talk to you! Granted, not all of these encounters will be fun:

「外人（がいじん）だ！ここから出（で）て行（い）けこのやろ！」”It’s a foreigner!  Get out of here jerk!”

or:

「すげーこの外人（がいじん）のお尻（しり）がマジででけー！」”Wow, this foreigner’s butt is huuuge!”

No one really wants to hear these kind of comments, but hey, practice is practice right?  Good time to work on a clever comeback.  For the most part, however, I hope your conversations are better than that.  For example, since people at the bar have lowered inhibitions you might even get to move your conversational topics beyond the differences in seasonal weather between where ever you are from and Japan.

2. Order things

Okay okay, for this one to work you need to get beyond ビール一本（いっぽん）ください “One beer please.”  The food and beverage options at a lot of places are pretty extensive and vary greatly from place to place, so pick something on the menu you don’t recognize and ask someone what it is!  If you are lucky, it will be something exclusively Japanese and it will take quite a bit of talking with the waiter (or other willing Japanese person near by) to figure out exactly what it is you are ordering.  This type of “real world” practice is invaluable and will go a long way to building language fluency and understanding of the Japanese culture.  The other option is of course just to point at something and hope you don’t get something either nasty or expensive and just build vocabulary that way.

3.  Learn Drinking Songs

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZho0UbKTZ0&NR=1[/youtube]

Like drinking songs in English, a lot of Japanese 飲（の）み会（かい）コール “drinking party chants” are really bad!  If you can keep up with the slang and swear like a sailor, you’ll be further along the path to fluency than most though.

4.  Go to Karaoke

In Japan, all roads do not lead to Rome, they lead to Karaoke.

At some point during your evening (or afternoon, whatever) there is a highly strong chance you will end up at karaoke if you have already been visiting a drinking establishment in Japan.  DO NOT WASTE THIS CHANCE!  Join up with some of your newly found, slightly “friendlier,” Japanese friends and learn a few tunes in Japanese.  Yes, this in fact means that you have to get beyond just the chorus in “Linda, Linda” but with perseverance and maybe a little YouTube before you go out, you can literally blow the socks off of everyone in the room.  Guaranteed, no one expects a foreigner to pull of the songs “Yamato” or “Sen No Kaze” flawlessly in Japanese, and you will have friends for life (or at least the evening) if you do.

5.  Try to ナンパ

Attempting to get lucky with a guy or girl you do not know in Japan is called “nampa.”  To have decent game though, it helps to understand the language, and with luck on your side one will improve with the other!  Learning silly pickup lines probably wont help, but getting to the point where you can have a clever conversation with someone you are interested in might.  Or just be イケメン or 美人（びじん） “hot” and no one will care if your Japanese is awful.  For the purpose of language improvement however, using your Japanese with someone you are interested in adds extra incentive to practice!  Get out there and don’t be shy!

6.  Pay your bill

When the bill comes, there are sometimes complications for which you may need to use your Japanese.  Your group needs to decide who will pay, and depending on the type of establishment you are visiting you may have additional “service charges” (see Japan’s Fantasy Girls for additional clarification).  For the first step, it is often pretty easy to determine who will pay, either the highest ranking person in the group in the case of a company/school outing, or わりかん meaning splitting the bill into equal parts, in the case of a casual outing with your friends.  Paying for exactly what your ordered, called 別々（べつべつ）, happens a lot less often unless it is with a group of foreigners.

In the case of being treated to a night of drinking and eating by your boss (or professor etc.) you of course need to practice being grateful and saying thank you:

ごちそうさまでした。Thank you for treating me.

すみませんありがとうございます。Excuse me, thank you very much.

In the case of splitting the bill with your friends, to figure out what you need to pay you can use:

僕（ぼく）の分（ぶん）いくら払（はら）えばいいですか？How much should I pay for my part?

Or with really close friends you can just ask

いくら？How much?

It depends on who you are with and what situation you are in, but there are varying degrees of formality when paying, so be sure to look into what you should say before going out to avoid being rude!

7.  Make Friends with the Staff

This step is a lot easier to do at some places than others.  Smaller establishments are typically better because they are a little quieter, and the “master” of the shop or other staff have more time to spend with individual customers as compared to bigger bars, chain izakayas, or other places like that.  Initial conversations might be about the master’s drink special of the night, his/her おすすめ “recommendations” but if you are a good customer and hit it off with the master and staff then you will have great conversation partners as well as occasionally get awesome deals for being a regular.  The staff might also be a bridge between you and other Japanese customers if you have a good enough relationship.  Of course it all depends on the particular establishment you go to, but listening to the “master’s” stories can be priceless as well as good for your language!  If you are lucky you’ll get a drink named after you!

8.  Find a place to sleep

Missing the last train may mean you need to act like a Japanese salary man and find a cheap or free place to crash.

Since staying out late in Japan is a very common practice, and sleeping at a co-workers place is not, so there are a number of business that cater to those who miss the last train, the most famous being capsule hotels as pictured above.  What you see is what you get, but you can at least get a few hours of sleep out of the cold and maybe a shower.  A lot of capsule hotels cater only to men, so women might need to find other options if out past the last train.

To improve your Japanese in the process of finding late night lodging, you can use and build on the following phrases:

When you want to stay with a friend:

今日（きょう）泊（と）めてくれる？ “Will you let me stay at your place tonight?”

ありがとう！ここからどのぐらい？ “Thanks!  About how far away is it (your place) from here?”

At a hotel:

空き部屋（あきべや）はありますか？  “Do you have any rooms available?”

一泊（いっぱく）はいくらですか？ “How much is it to stay for the night?”

ここは女（おんな）の人（ひと）が泊まれますか？ “Is it possible for women to stay here?”

チェックアウトは何時（なんじ）ですか？ “What time is checkout?”

Depending on your situation, the procedures might be different, so you can get a lot of practice with Japanese just by checking in and out of various hotels.

9.  Learn etiquette of eating and drinking

Japanese culture is filled with complexity and subtlety.  Please do not take this video seriously, it is supposed to be a joke!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCpbBVthD7o[/youtube]

Actually learning how to eat and drink properly will really impress people and make it easier to strike a conversation.  Often, Japanese people are impressed just with a 外人（がいじん）”foreigner” being able to use chopsticks, but if you are actually able to pour sake the right way to the right people, pass food the right way, and show modesty people will be amazed and want to talk to you about how you learned your manners.  After they tell you how good you are, be sure to ask for more tips so you keep on learning the etiquette, practicing the language, and showing people your genuine interest in their culture!

10.  Be a connoisseur

Japan has arguably some of the best food and drink in the world, so ask and learn about what you are eating and drinking!

While in Japan, visitors can develop a taste for new and different types of food and drink whether it is sake, sushi, shochu, tako yaki, and the list goes on and on.  If you find your “calling” be it $400 platters of sashimi or $5 pints of Asahi Super Dry with gyoza, learn about what you’re eating and talk about it to other people.  Japanese people can have really strong opinions about what they eat, like preferences for Hiroshima style or Osaka style okonomiyaki, so you might find yourself in some heated arguments, but learning about the ingredients, the best places to eat or drink whatever it is you like, and the varieties in styles can provide ammunition for your argument and be a good learning tool for Japanese language and culture.

Disclaimer

While pubs, bars, izakaya, sushi restaurants, snack bars, etc are great places to make friends and learn Japanese it goes without saying to “don’t do anything stupid.”  Going there doesn’t mean you have to make all foreigners look bad by doing things like getting embarrassingly drunk, shamelessly hitting on Japanese people, or just being inappropriate in general.  Do your best to learn the language from the people who use it every day while not acting like a jerk.

This post was written by Nick W., who has traveled throughout many regions of Japan in search of unique cultural gems.  He is currently earning his MBA and has researched topics like folk music in WWII Japan and Ainu cultural revival through music.  His favorite Japanese musician is the late Nujabes.

15 Questions, 1 Answer:

Go Hitchhiking!

1. Trains are so comfortable, not to mention punctual. Why should I hitchhike?

Hitchhiking is more than a just means of transportation. It’s a conversation. It’s a story. Every trip is unique. In Japan in particular, you are likely to find yourself in crazy/amusing/interesting situations with surprising frequency. During my trip, I was invited to a hockey party, climbed a mountain, attended festivals, taught at a school for a day, earned my keep at a ryokan, and met a ton of incredible people. At first I thought I was just lucky, but the adventures kept on coming!

Hitchhiking is a thrilling breath of fresh air from the typical tourist routes and agendas. The fact that it’s much cheaper is an added bonus. In my books, there’s no better way to travel in Japan.

2.  The Japanese generally have strong boundaries against people “outside” their social network.  In spite of this cultural trait, you managed to get people to not only pay attention to you, but let you hitchhike with them.  Why do you think that is?

I think that, to some degree at least, stereotypes don’t apply for hitchhikers. It’s true that the Japanese can be more closed off to strangers, but my drivers were generally open and outgoing. This is no doubt because of the very biased sample I had; even if only one in fifty drivers would dare to invite a stranger into their car, that one in fifty is exactly who would stop and cheerfully offer me a lift. There’s also a very strong culture of hospitality in Japan, such that once you are in the car, you are on the “inside,” so to speak.

As for specific motivations, I was curious about this as well, and asked some of the drivers why they chose to stop. I wrote about their answers in a blog post I wrote here.

3.  Japan is known for its regional identities.  Do you think that hitchhiking worked particularly well in an area like Hokkaido, or do you think it would work equally well in Kanto or Kansai?

While Hokkaidans certainly have a reputation for being friendly and laid back, I’ve read accounts of successful hitchhiking in many other parts of Japan as well. In general, rural areas are better for good, frequent rides. I’d like to try hitchhiking in Shikoku and Kyūshū next.

4.  Hitchhiking has kind of a bad rap in the US because of its negative and scary image in the media. What do Japanese people generally think of hitchhikers?

I’m not sure how hitchhikers in general are viewed, but a lot of people I met were afraid for my safety. “I can’t believe you just hop in the car with so many strangers!” Hitchhiking is quite rare in Japan and is something that most people there would never consider doing.

That said, I think people generally overestimate the danger involved. I know this sounds a bit morbid, but I think, statistically, I was far more likely to be hurt in a car accident than at the hand of a maniacal, chainsaw-wielding madman.

Still, I always look for clues to expose potentially dangerous drivers. If you can see a bloody knife under the seat, hastily covered by an extremist anti-establishment magazine, perhaps you should think twice. 危ない, でしょう…

5.  What kinds of people usually picked you up?  Did you notice any patterns?  Who should future hitchhikers wave wildly at for their best bet as a ride?

Actually, there were almost no patterns in the types of people who picked me up. I got rides with students, retirees, businesspeople, cooks, farmers, a hairdresser, a professional cyclist, and even a CEO. I wouldn’t give up on any car unless the seats were full (or if that bloody knife were visible of course).

I’m a fan of statistics, so I collected some information about each ride and driver during the trip. I’ll be posting more details on my blog in future.

6.  Did you speak Japanese a lot while riding with your hitchhiking hosts or were they more interested in getting free roadside English lessons?

I spent a lot of time speaking Japanese on the trip, which was great for me. It really took me out of the “English bubble” I’d been living in, and my Japanese improved a lot as a result. Kids in particular were great to chat with, and never shy about asking questions.

Regarding people looking for English lessons, this woman was the only one. Overall though, not many of the drivers who picked me up could (or dared to) speak English.

I’d say that understanding some Japanese is fairly important to having a good time hitchhiking there. A basic vocabulary should be fine, and you can get from A to B even without that, but they will be quiet rides if you’ve got nothing to work with. Some hitchhikers even hold a sign saying “日本語できる” to help their chances of a ride, but I found it not to be necessary. (Even destination signs are generally not needed except in special circumstances, and can often work against the hitchhiker.)

6.  What was the worst situation you found yourself in while hitchhiking, and how did you manage to get out of it?

Luckily, I was never in truly dire circumstances. It helped that I had lots of good advice via The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Japan, by Will Ferguson.

I ended up lost for several hours in Tomakomai, at the mercy of convenience store employees’ directional abilities. Of course getting lost is part of traveling, and I was eventually helped out by a friendly surfer named Osamu.

7.  Japanese people can be OVERLY accommodating sometimes.  What was the most over the top gesture of hospitality that you encountered?

Would you call a marriage proposal over the top? She explained that she had no husband and said, “You’re good looking and I’m rich — kekkon shimashou ka?”

Another time, a man offered to drive me to the nearest city, but only if I stayed at his house for three days. I politely declined that one.

In general though, the gestures of hospitality were wonderful. I can’t overstate the kindness I was shown.

8.  Where did you usually stay once your ride for the day finished?

Because I had a tent, I was able to stay almost anywhere. I pitched it in parks, near beaches, and campgrounds where possible. Youth hostels were also nice for a break from camping.

To get a complete picture of where I stayed, I have prepared the following pie chart.

9.  Did you use any online resources to help you find housing, rides, etc like couchsurfing.org?

I did use couchsurfing, but only once. One of the great things about my trip was its lack of planning — on a given day I could go as far as I wanted or not go anywhere at all, which made arrangements with hosts tough to make. The one time I did use it was excellent, though. I highly recommend joining the couchsurfing community.

10.  Should girls feel equally safe hitchhiking in Japan as guys?  What is your advice for the hitchhiking ladies of Japan?

Japan is one of the safest countries in the world, but it’s ultimately up to the girl to decide whether it’s safe enough. Girls who are hesitant could try hitchhiking with a friend. Or with me :P

11.  What was the wonkiest car you ever rode in while hitchhiking?

I felt pretty cool sitting in Kawaii-san’s SK-139. I wrote about the ride here.

12.  What season is best to hitchhike in?

I’d avoid the rainy season and the winter months if you’re camping.

13.  What happens when no one picks you up?

Wait longer!

The “hitchhiker’s mantra” can be very comforting during the longer stretches of waiting. Eventually, someone will stop.

On average, I waited about 20 minutes per ride. The longest I ever waited was 1.5 hours. I received 59 rides during my trip though, and with that many rides you’re bound to have one or two tough waits.

14.  Did you ever get caught in a storm?  What did you do?

Usually, when it rained I was lucky enough to have shelter. コンビニ are great for this*.

There were times when I tried to hitchhike in heavy rain, but I rarely had success. Rain works against the hitchhiker. One might think you’d benefit from drivers’ sympathy in the rain, but bad weather has the even stronger effect of making everyone look a little more sinister. Picture dark gray clouds, blankets of rain, and Mother Teresa standing on a street corner. Is she concealing a knife? Possibly. Never trust a wet nun.

*I took an informal poll of my drivers and discovered that their preferred convenience store was split 50/50 between 7-11 and Seikomart. No love for Lawson, sadly.

15.  In your experience, what should future hitchhikers avoid doing so as to maximize the good times and limit the bad?

May I offer a top ten?

1. Read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Japan. It’s full of useful information and even possible routes to take. The list below is good, but it’s no replacement.
2. Try to stay in rural areas (urban hitchhiking is possible, but it’s harder and less rewarding)
3. Bring a good map, a camera, and a journal.
4. Be as outgoing, talkative, and generous as possible with your drivers. They will generally act likewise.
5. If possible, bring small, inexpensive gifts for your drivers and hosts. You will want to show your gratitude, if only with a small token.
6. Bring a tent to save money (also, like turtles, you’re never truly stranded when your home is on your back).
7. Be clear that you need not reach your destination in one ride. When asked where you’re going, phrases like “西のほう” or “[name-of-town]のほう” work well).
8. Understand that some people will offer to help you only because they feel obligated. Try to recognize these situations and politely decline.
9. When possible, wait on the edge of town to avoid local traffic.
10. Stop hesitating and do it! Get out there, hold out your thumb, and smile. Adventure awaits.

This post was a collaboration between Nick W. and David Martindale, which was started through a call for travel stories to feature in the Tofugu blog post series called Japan [Off the Beaten Track].  If you have interesting travel stories, suggestions for a featured location, or anything else you would like to share about traveling in Japan, please contact Nick W. at nick@tofugu.com.

David Martindale recently returned from Japan, where he taught English for a year at an amazing school in Kawasaki. After teaching, he embarked on a month-long hitchhiking trip, about which you can read more on his blog called Hitching Without A Hitch.

Using a Japanese newspaper for kids, like Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun above, I developed a 5 step study method designed to increase vocabulary and kanji identification, reading comprehension, and confidence for taking the JLPT!  Reading at the appropriate level makes it possible to practice reading similar paragraphs that will appear in the test and gives you the chance to identify vocabulary and kanji that are likely to appear in the JLPT.

1. Read the article without any helpful hiragana

2. Identify and list unknown words

3. Identify and list unknown kanji

4. Study the new lists

5. Re-read the article

Paired with Evernote and Jisho.org, this 5 step method should give you a good head start in your studying!

Step 1:  Read the article without any helpful hiragana

I know it’s frustrating, sad, and hard, but reading the article first without any help will help you out in a lot of ways in the long run so stick with it and don’t cry!  The first thing that will result from reading the article without any hiragana is helping you to honestly assess your reading ability.  It will show you the words you know and the ones you don’t in black and white.  The other important thing this step accomplishes is simulating the actual test.  There will be no helpful hiragana in the real test, so why practice with it?  If you are really serious about taking the test, you might also want to time yourself to see how long it takes to read a short article.

Using Evernote, I selected and added this text from an article on Mainichi Shogakusei Shinbun resulting in the above picture.  The rockin thing about Evernote in this example is that it automatically makes a title and takes note of the original page you visited so you wont forget later!  I then removed the pesky hiragana and gave reading the article my best shot.

Step 2:  Identify and list unknown words

Crap…as you can see I’ve got a LONG way to go!  In this step, highlight the words you don’t know in red and hope you don’t get an atomic red ink bomb like I did!  It is important to be HONEST with yourself here.  If you can’t read it without any help from hiragana, or if you look it up in the dictionary and say “Oh, right, duh!  I know this one!” mark it red Donny, because you are OUT OF YOUR ELEMENT! lol.  More seriously, just be conservative, if you don’t guess right the first time, it won’t hurt you to practice those borderline words a few times.  In the end, it is really good practice to identify difficult words as they are used in a paragraph.  When you are finished, your list should look something like this:

Step 3:  Identify and list unknown kanji

In the vocabulary list, find and highlight kanji in red that you can’t recognize right away as demonstrated in the example above.  Once identified, use a Japanese dictionary to make a list of kanji for future reference.  I found the website jisho.org VERY useful in completing this step.  Copy and paste the unknown kanji from the vocab list to the kanji list and as long as you don’t cut and paste anything else, you can simply paste it again into the kanji search page of jisho.org.  Once you look up the kanji, the website spits out more information than anyone can dream about that specific kanji.  I recommend at least taking note of all the different readings for the kanji and the definition in English.  One extra step I took was to include other words that that kanji appears in to practice recognition in general.  Jisho.org has a great feature to do this by pressing on the link in the “Kanji” page called “Words Containing” and usually zillions of words will come up that use this kanji, which can then be paired down to common words if desired.  Here is an example of a finished kanji list made from an article:

Step 4: Study the new lists

Now we get to the hard part: you have to remember all the stuff you just wrote down!  Making lots of lists is a waste of time if you don’t actually go back through them to learn the material.  Try to use the words in a sentence, look up more kanji combination, use them in a diary or homework assignment, or use Textfugu to learn about remembering radicals to help you retain the lists you just wrote.  Whatever you decide to do, be proactive and do something…anything!  It will pay off for the text and for the next step in this method.

Step 5: Re-read the article

Now that you are the master of all the vocabulary and kanji that stumped you in the article you read, go back and rock it!  Of course leave out the hiragana, and see how much you retained.  If there are still words and kanji that you miss, go back to the lists you made and study them for a while and re-read the article again.  Hopefully by the end of this process you will understand the meaning of the article, which will be a critical part in the new test.  Practicing reading full paragraphs will make life a lot easier for you when you actually sit down for the JLPT.  Good luck passing the JLPT!

LINKS

Newspapers for Kids:

• http://mainichi.jp/life/edu/maishou/index.html
• http://yomoyomo.jp/index.php
• http://kids.goo.ne.jp/index.html?SY=0&MD=2

Dictionaries:

• http://www.jisho.org
• http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi?1C

Other Resources:

• http://www.textfugu.com
• http://www.tofugu.com/2010/04/06/tofugu-100-best-japanese-learning-resources/
• http://www.tofugu.com/2010/03/09/how-to-use-evernote-to-study-japanese-or-any-other-language/

This post was written by Nick W., who has traveled throughout many regions of Japan in search of unique cultural gems.  He is currently earning his MBA and has researched topics like folk music in WWII Japan and Ainu cultural revival through music.  His favorite Japanese musician is the late Nujabes.  Currently, he is studying for the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) Level 2.

The era of the Geisha for the most part has ended, but the cultural tradition of larger than life females remains very much alive.  Outside traditional areas in cities like Kyoto, there are very few Geisha to be found in Japan these days, but in their place are virtually endless varieties of “Fantasy Girls.”  Samurai used to pay elaborately dressed Geisha to sing, dance, and generally make them feel good about themselves after a long day working for their lord.  In modern times, “shain” 社員 (company men) can choose their own “Fantasy Girl” to perform the same function.  In many cases, the purpose of their service goes beyond simple physical attractiveness to provide an avenue of escapism through individual attention, fantastic scenarios, and over-the-top service.  People come from around the world to participate in the many fantastic worlds created by Japan’s “Fantasy Girls,” and this post should serve as an introduction to what all the fuss is about by presenting a few well known groups of women (sometimes men) who set the stage for fantasy: キャバクラ (Kyabakura), ホステスクラブ／ホストクラブ (Host/Hostess Club), スナックバー (Snack Bar), and メイドカフェ (Maid Cafes).

キャバクラ – Kyabakura

キャバクラ “Kyabakura” (referred to by some as hostess or host bars), ホステスクラブ “Hostess Clubs,” and スナックバー “Snack Bars” are all very similar in that they involve beautiful women and men who are dressed almost comically elegantly and are supposed to make you feel like a big shot…as long as you have cash.

The word キャバクラ (kyabakura) is made from a combination of the words cabaret and club.  I guess it’s kind of like a Las Vegas cabaret show that comes to you!  This type of establishment also has the same kind of bad reputation as Las Vegas has: full of organized crime, substance abuse, prostitution, illegal immigrant workers, and exploitation of women (and men).  While this negative stereotype has a lot of traction, and has even attracted some action from the Japanese government, キャバクラ are so widespread throughout Japan that the moral standing of the establishment varies from location to location.

In Kyabakura, The Experience Should Be Like This:

A man or women dressed as if he or she is about to go to the Academy Awards will approach you from outside the establishment and tell you about all the beautiful women (or men) inside the kyabakura and should you decide to go inside the clock immediately starts on your service charge (warning: this is how a lot of foreigners lose all their money very quickly).  Once inside, either a girl (or boy) will be chosen for you or you can pick from a menu.  From that point, you are seated with the partner you chose who dotes on you hand and foot, flirts with you, animatedly listens to stories about your boring life, and constantly praises you.  All this is done over very expensive drinks, and typically one is encouraged to buy an entire bottle of liquor for use on multiple occasions, i.e. they really want you to come back.  Depending on the location, once the night is over you will get a little kiss and then a flurry of text messages telling you how amazing you are and to come back as soon as possible.  If you develop a relationship with a particular hostess or host, sometimes paid dates, called “douhan” 「同伴」 outside the club are permitted to encourage loyalty to the particular kyabakura.  This practice is morally gray to say the least, but in theory these dates are limited to casual flirting only.  Once you leave the kyabakura you will feel like a great weight has been lifted from your shoulders…or wallet…I forget which one comes first.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw-PrZjGHaE']

This Japanese news report is kind of like an insiders guide to the girls inside kyabakura (a relatively un-sketchy one).

ホステスクラブ – Hostess Club

Take the concept of kyabakura, multiply the price and staff physical attractiveness factor by at least 10, add incredibly wealthy people, subtract most of the illegal activities, and you have a hostess club!

There will be no one begging you to come inside this establishment.  These types of clubs are highly exclusive, often the meeting place for very high ranking members of society, and located in high class areas of big cities like the Ginza district in Tokyo.  If you want in, there is typically no fee per hour, but in the best ones you need to shell out over $100K to get access (yes, in US DOLLARS… not that US dollars are worth that much anymore, though).  The workers here are generally taken care of very well by a former hostess called Mama-san, and often have successful modeling careers during and after their time as employees.  Sometimes they get married to celebrities or high ranking officials who frequent the club.  The women are highly trained in the skills of making you feel good about yourself and are on the forefront of fashion trends.  Definitely not unlike Geisha right?!  This type of celebrity like status is what allures a lot of young women into the business, but a high quality place like this is usually not were they end up.

ホストクラブ – Host Club

One interesting difference between the “Age of the Geisha” and now is the inclusion of men as servers in Japan’s night time industry.  Host Clubs work almost exactly the same way as Hostess Clubs, but are typically not as high class and include a rainbow of gender preferences: female or male customers who like males, female or male customers who like very feminine males or cross dressing males, female or male customers who like females dressed as males, and the list goes on and on.  No matter what type of male they are, you can be assured that they are very confident, cool, fashionable, and oozing with money.

スナックバー – Snack Bar

A snack bar is like the smaller cousin to kyabakura.  These places typically are not the epicenter of modern fashion, but are more like hangouts for everyday salary men that would rather hang out with younger, probably foreign girls, than go home to their wife.  These places often have a variety of options for activities to do together like billiards, karaoke, darts, drinking, and eating.  It’s like going to a bar with a hot young girlfriend who does nothing but praise your every action and encourage you to drink as much as you want!  Definitely a fantasy world, and you’ll end up paying for it when the bill comes.  Unlike kyabakura, snack bars are a little bit more on the “honor system” in that if you really like the service you should leave a substantial tip.  Snack Bars are also not as hardcore as kyabakura about getting you to come back over and over again through financial and emotional pressure, so it’s typically a good option for foreign visitors.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4--S9DO5PE']

This set up is pretty normal.  It’s pretty much just a bar where the female bartenders and staff are extra nice, so you tip them accordingly.

メイドカフェー – Maid Cafe

We have just left the Salary Man’s escape and have moved on to Otaku-land:  秋葉原 AKIHABARA!!  Of course it is very easy to find numerous salary men (Japanese term for someone working 9-5 at a large company) who also lead dual lives as serious Otaku (basically “nerd” in Japanese).  Akihabara is a section of Tokyo where the Otaku culture is at its peak, and chances are as soon as you step off the JR train, you’ll be greeted by a very cute Japanese girl dressed up like a French maid who will pose in pictures with you and invite you to her cafe.

“WELCOME TO AKIHABARA MASTER!!”

“秋葉原にお帰りなさいませご主人様！”

The predominant maid cafe style is where the maids treat you as though you are royalty and they are lowly, but very cute servants and dote on you hand and foot (see a pattern here at all?).  They will compliment you, tell you that you are handsome, put ketchup on your omelet in heart shapes while sitting on their knees at your table, make cute noises like a cat, blow kisses, make heart shapes with their hands, and encourage you to act cutely as well.  At many locations, they also play eating and drinking games with various prizes.

One example is that a maid will fix a huge stack of pancakes for you and a tiny pancake for herself and the bet is that if you can eat your pancakes faster than she can, you will get a kiss on the cheek, but if you lose she will slap you in the face in front of the entire restaurant.  All of this is done while they speak in an overly cute style called Mo-e “萌え” which in English I suppose would be the equivalent of baby-talk.  That sounds like it would get real annoying real fast, but people LOVE it, especially Otaku who don’t ever get attention from pretty girls (funny thing is, a lot of American otaku who learn Japanese on their own, probably using anime, often sound kind of like this… “funny” because it’s funny to listen to them talk like a baby girl).  It unfortunately leads to a lot of stalking, but in comparison, maid cafes are free from a lot of the other problems associated with kyabakura.  Almost everything you do at the cafe will cost money, from taking pictures to eating contests, and the food is of course at a premium cost, but for people who love Japanese girls dressed and acting like your personal French-maid servant, it is well worth the cost.

The wild thing about maid cafes though is that there are SO MANY DIFFERENT KINDS! There are some that are the exact opposite of the description above, and basically involve the maid treating you like a piece of crap and verbally abusing you the entire time you are in the restaurant.  Others are for women who like called Butler Cafes, some of which are entirely comprised of European men, who will even carry you around for a fee.

Here’s a link to a video to give you an idea of what exactly happens at a few different types of maid cafes.  The first that is shown is the typical style, the second is tsundere “つんでれ” which is basically where they make you think they hate you but in the end they show they really like you, and lastly is like samurai adventure where they do mock battles while you eat epically named food. Tofugu even wrote about a pretty creepy maid cafe a while ago: Mom Cafes.

Disneyland – but far more creepy

One new style of maid cafe that’s real real weird is called “kigurumi” 着ぐるみ which is basically some one wearing a head to toe costume like in Disneyland, but in this case it’s much more otaku adult themed…

This place is just like a regular maid cafe except the people dressed in anime costumes do not talk, but write on whiteboards to communicate with you.  This sounds like a bad horror movie!  To each his/her own I guess…

Japan’s Fantasy Girls – Past and Present

There are of course many many differences between Geisha in the past and the present form of fantasy girls in Japan, but the connection is clear: women (and men) in this industry provide a service that goes beyond the physical excitement present in similar services originating in the West like strip clubs, Hooters, etc.  The people performing all of these services in Japan are of course physically attractive, but more so they are experts in creating atmosphere where the customer feels removed from the world they live in and receive special individual attention.  In the West, people pay two separate groups: one to listen to their problems like counselors, and one that is unrealistically physically appealing like strip dancers.  In Japan however, they have a tradition of combining those roles that arguably has roots during the time of the Geisha.

This post was written by Nick W., who has traveled throughout many regions of Japan in search of unique cultural gems.  He is currently earning his MBA and has researched topics like folk music in WWII Japan and Ainu cultural revival through music.  His favorite Japanese musician is the late Nujabes.  He has experienced great amounts of culture shock when unknowingly encountering kyabakura hostesses.  In hindsight it was hilarious.

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Hokkaido’s Food

MMMmmm, scary, hairy, and delicious.  For Japanese and foreign travelers alike, a main draw for coming to Hokkaido is the seafood.  The cold, pure waters surrounding Hokkaido provide superb locations for harvesting seafood of all varieties.  Above is the Horse Hair Crab 毛蟹『kegani』, which is one of many kinds of crab that can be enjoyed in Hokkaido.  Other dishes famous to Hokkaido are sushi made from 海胆『uni』sea urchin, and ホタテ『hotate』scallop, which are best eaten absolutely as fresh as possible.  Both sea urchin and scallops are typically difficult for foreign visitors to eat raw, but when served in Hokkaido, the often off putting smell is lessened because of the superb freshness.  One of the best cities to eat seafood in is Hakodate because of its location on surrounded by water on the southern peninsula of Hokkaido, so you can jump off the train as soon as you arrive and eat some delicious sea food.  Be sure to bring your wallet!  It’s worth it!

For those of you rugged travelers who do not have money to throw down for expensive seafood cuisine, or for those who just do not like seafood, there is always one amazing alternative…..

RAMEN!!!!!!!

This is Sapporo Ramen.  The REAL Sapporo Ramen, not to be confused with the crappy instant ramen brand found in most Costcos.  If you read my Shikoku article, then you know my strong feelings for Ramen already.  It is truly the friend of the traveler and must be utilized, especially in Hokkaido where many agree that it is the best you can find in Japan.  The ramen in Sapporo is typically a sweet miso ramen designed to fill and warm you up on a wickedly cold night.  There are different variations of what goes inside, but generally seafood, meat, egg, and corn are the most common.  If you become a ramen fanatic like I am, you MUST have some if you visit Hokkaido.

Ainu Language

In all likelihood you will never be in a situation where you will only be able to use the Ainu language.  Please PROVE ME WRONG AND TELL ME WHERE YOU WENT!!!

In a quick history overview, the Ainu are an indigenous group of people in Japan with rather mysterious origins.  While they initially inhabited a large part of northern Japan, they were gradually pushed north by the Japanese, eventually limited exclusively to Hokkaido.  After the Meiji Restoration (1867), Hokkaido was annexed by the Japanese and the Ainu were forcefully assimilated and their language and culture was largely destroyed.  Only very recently, beginning in the early 1990s, have the remaining descendants of the Ainu gained significant ground in the revival of their language and culture.  Here is a great resource for learning more about the Ainu language.  If you want first hand experience learning the language, a good place to start are Ainu villages called “Kotan.”  Most are more like tourist destinations rather than places where people actually live a traditional lifestyle, but if you go to either and show interest in the language, I’m sure you’ll get on the right track.

Music = Language

One of the best ways to understand how the Ainu language sounds is to listen to the music because music is one of the main methods that has been used to preserve this language as well as other similar “lost languages.”  The following are a couple of samples of Ainu music, one traditional and one modern.

First is a very traditional piece that show cases how music might have actually sounded before the Japanese assimilation:

Iuta Upopo (Husking Song)

The piece is a functional work song for husking, as the name implies.  Originally, Ainu songs were not performance pieces, but served specific purposes in everyday life.  The key when listening to the language is to notice how different the pronunciation is from Japanese.

Second is a great duo who did a great deal to popularize the Ainu cultural revival through modern interpretation of traditional Ainu music – Oki Kano, and the late Umeko Ando:

Battaki

The stringed instrument played by Oki Kano is called a “Tonkori” and while it is a traditional Ainu instrument, it is being played with a modern pop music flair.  The chanting by Umeko Ando, is very similar to traditional Ainu music, and the drummer is playing rhythms from modern popular music.  This music is a fantastic way to become introduced to how beautiful the Ainu language sounds!

Hokkaido’s Festivals

Ainu Festivals

Speaking of Ainu, some of the best festivals in Hokkaido are ones that display Ainu language and culture like the Ainu Music Festival in Sapporo.  Look at the picture above with Oki Kano rocking out on amplified Ainu tonkori.  EPIC! Other Ainu festivals can be found in Sapporo as well as Ainu villages (kotan) throughout Hokkaido, so go check some out!

The most famous (or infamous) Ainu festival is called the Iomante Festival, but I have a feeling most of you won’t want to go.  It is a religious ceremony where a bear is sacrificed to the bear god in order to encourage more bears to come to the earth.  The festival is very rare, mostly because the practice of slowly killing a bear is seen by many as inhumane to animals.  The practice looks very similar to bull fighting, except the young bear is tied to a rope nailed to a peg in the ground, so it’s even more unfair.  This festival is an opportunity to see Ainu culture in a way that most people never can, but it is not for the faint of heart.

Ice Festivals

The real big attraction to Hokkaido, as many of you know, are the ice festivals most famously the Sapporo Ice Festival, pictured above.  The festival attracts over 2 million people and is one of the best ice festivals in the world with huge structures that push the boundaries of the human imagination.  That being said, there will be crowds, so here’s one of many other Ice Festival options for those of you wanting to get further off the beaten track.

Sounkyo Ice Festival

The Sounkyo Ice Festival is located in the beautiful Sounkyo Gorge, southeast of Asahikawa.  The region itself is worth going to any time of year to appreciate nature, get away from tourist traps, and to get in on the many opportunities to have adventures in any of the four seasons.  The festival takes place from January-March and is illuminated by beautiful colored lights covering the many ice sculptures, caves, and pathways, which cover an extensive area for walking around for viewing it all under a large weekly fireworks display.  You won’t see quite the same level of massive structures like at the Sapporo Ice Festival, but the Sounkyo Ice Festival makes up for it in spades with a great location, beautiful illumination, and smaller crowds.

There are many ice festivals in the Asahikawa area, some with other cool features like hot air ballooning, so please find one that suits you, bring some warm clothes, and have a good time!  Here’s a link for the Asahikawa Tourism website to get you started!

Hokkaido’s Adventures

For adventures in nature, Hokkaido is hard to beat.  It is filled with world class national parks, pristine hiking trails, light powder snow for winter sports, and spectacular view points of waterfalls, mountains, and rivers.  Heck, you can even go dog sledding! Hokkaido is such a large island that you really could write a whole book about exploring what it has to offer.  I hope I can provide you with material to start your first chapter!

Daisetsuzan National Park 大雪山国立公園 is a great place to get started exploring Hokkaido because it offers so much opportunity for great hiking, skiing, onsens, scenery, and meeting interesting people.  Above is Asahidake 旭岳, the tallest mountain in Hokkaido at 2291 meters and one of the centerpieces for the national park.  The climb to the summit in the summer is filled with stunning 360 degree scenery, smoldering geysers, and uneasy footing on the path up the side of the mountain due to deposits of volcanic rock. Thanks to a gondola, however, getting as far as where this picture was taken is only a short ride away, and in the winter skiing or boarding down is highly encouraged to experience Hokkaido POW.  The types of people who choose to continue the journey to the very top are surprisingly diverse from professional level climbers who spend all summer carrying packs nearly twice their size to camp and hike around the region, to elderly couples and their toddler grandchildren.  The origins of the visitors are spread out as well from salary men from Tokyo and Osaka seeking to get away from the fast paced stress of their work to tour groups from Western Europe and the United States as well as Japanese families on vacation.

The start of the gondola is located in a very small mountain town with the same name as the mountain, Asahidake.  There, you can find a youth hostel just a short walk away from the gondola with pretty reasonable prices for rooms that include breakfast, and even a small lunch if you pay a little bit extra.  There is a wonderful complimentary outdoor onsen 露天風呂 「rotenburo」included in the price, with water flowing from the natural hot spring creek that runs right past the hostel.  From there, it is easy to access the many nature trails and the hike from the hostel to the nearby Tenninkyo Onsen 天人峡温泉 requires a little bushwhacking but provides great vistas of gorges and waterfalls (below).

The great thing about Hokkaido is that this is just one of the countless locations where you can get off the beaten track, experience beautiful scenery, and interact with interesting people from Japan and around the world who are on similar journeys for adventure.

Hokkaido’s Transportation

For being such a massive, rugged island, it really is not that hard to get around with public transportation.  The JR Hokkaido Railway Company crisscrosses the island pretty well to get you at least in the general vicinity of where you want to go.  From there, there are lots of buses available to get you to a specific destination that does not have a train station.

Most people fly to Sapporo and then take a bus or train, but if you are hardcore and happen to have a JR Pass (basically an all-you-can-ride pass for increments of 1-3 weeks if you’re on a tourist visa) you might try taking the train all the way up.  It’s a LONG ride, and not real comfortable if you aren’t in a sleeping car, so if you don’t have a JR pass, it’s just about the same price to fly so I would do that unless you have lots of time on your hands and want to see some of northern Honshu before getting into Hokkaido.

With that, good luck in Hokkaido!  Go out and try to get lost!  Make sure to wear bells on your backpack to ward off bears and have a good time!

いろいろな地域を探検してみてください！(iroirona chiikiwo tanken shitemite kudasai) “GO EXPLORE!”

P.S.  If you have a place in Japan you love that’s off the beaten track and want to share it on Tofugu.com, send a short summary of your experience to nick@tofugu.com.

Many people even say that “the best way to learn a language is to date someone who speaks it!”  Sorry, but for the sake of your Japanese language skills

Flirting DOESN’T CUT IT!

I assure you, the longer you date a Japanese girl, the less likely you will be able read the rude t-shirt you started wearing to find one!  Why you might ask?  It only makes sense that the more you speak Japanese, the better you get, right? Right?  RIGHT?!

Wrong, and here’s why:

1.  You are lazy

Sure.  At first you might say, “Oh man, I’m going to get so good at kanji, and grammar, and all that stuff now!” and you might even convince your girlfriend to tutor you everyday, but that won’t last. It NEVER does. There are exceptions to the rule, but most of the time you’ve got a lot more “fun and important” things to do with your girlfriend than talk about freaking kanji radicals and grammar points (…at least I HOPE you do).  You’ll also have a lot more “unfun” things to talk about like when her mom is coming to visit or how bad you made the bathroom smell.  In any case, there will be times when you’ll get lazy and just use the easiest words you can think of, even if it’s just English that sounds kind of like Japanese.

2.  You will mix English and Japanese

There are lots of terms for this phenomenon, and it is not limited to just speakers of English and Japanese, but it is the DEVIL!!! This stupid practice, mostly caused by laziness will literally ruin your chances of speaking intelligible Japanese, and probably your girlfriend’s chances of remembering English.  You will create your own little language that no one else really understands, not even you, and that makes for absolutely terrible communication.

Here is a sample conversation that doesn’t make sense:

A.  When do you think the 図書館 is open?

B.  さあ、I don’t know, after dinner you should チェック。

A.  めんどくさいな。

B.  Don’t be a バカ。ほら見て、このサイトで it’s written right here!

A.   そうか。Fine, 夕飯を食べたら I’m gonna go return these 本。

See?  This conversation is wrong in too many ways to  “counto.”

3.  Getting made fun of sucks

No matter how good at speaking Japanese you get, there will always be ways to get made fun of by your girlfriend.  Some are simply called “cute” for speaking with an accent, while others get called out on their weird grammar or pronunciation.  No matter what, most guys HATE criticism, even backhanded statements about how cute you are!  It makes you feel stupid, like you are being treated like a small child, and it’s easy to get defensive.  Even people who speak really awesome Japanese get made fun of because they speak better Japanese than normal people!  It’s frustrating!  It’s only fair though, because I’m sure not many of you can honestly say you’ve never made fun of Japanese English or “カタカナ イングリーシュ.”  It’s just so cute and funny.  アイ　ライク　ユウー！カン　ウイ　ハング　アウト　ツモーロ？ “I like you!  Can we hang out tomorrow?” Awwwwwww….okay, fair is fair.

4.  あんたの彼女とばかり話してると、かわいい女の子みたいに話しちゃうわよ！笑

This title means, if you talk with your girlfriend all the time, you might end up sounding like our friend above:

「あたし美しいね〜!」”I’m sooo beautiful!” (said very cutely)

This is probably not desirable, and believe me, everyone will let you know how girly you sound.  This unfortunate scenario also occurs a lot because a huge portion of Japanese instructors are women, and most foreign guys don’t spend their time looking for manly sounding Japanese dudes to chase around.  If you are just starting your language learning experience, you won’t be able to help but talk like girl.  On the flip side, if you over compensate, and try to talk like a Japanese THUG, then your friends, girlfriend, their friends friends, will think you’ve lost your mind and will all laugh until they turn blue.

5.  Your girlfriend wants to learn English

I know Koichi hates this with a passion, but most guys learning Japanese are going to try to get girlfriends in Japan by becoming language partners.  Sorry Koichi, but it’s the birds and the bees, and it’s the way it will always be.  Men, chances are your future girlfriend isn’t going to date you because she’s really pumped about teaching someone basic Japanese over and over again.  If anything, she’ll agree to hang out with you because she wants to learn English, at least as one of the perks.  If that is the case, you will probably spend a lot more time explaining things in English rather than learning Japanese.

6.  No keigo or kanji with your girlfriend

Maybe I have exaggerated a smidge in the above parts, and there are significant linguistic improvements that can be made in your life by chasing Japanese girls.  Keigo (formal language) and Kanji skills are probably not included in this theoretical list of benefits.  Unless you want your conversations with your girlfriend to sound like two bankers who aren’t quite sure which of them is 先輩「せんぱい」 “senior,” you won’t be getting a lot of time practicing keigo.  Even Japanese people have trouble learning keigo because no one uses it with anyone close to them.  Using keigo with people you like makes you sound like you are being especially cold and probably mad at them.  It’s like when your parents were driving the car on a road trip when you were a little kid, and your dad is super lost and your mom asks overly kindly “Honey, would it be at all possible if we could stop and ask for directions?” to which your dad replies very politely and forcefully restrained “Darling, if we can just find the freeway, there will be no need to stop and bother the gas station attendant…”  It’s a little different in Japanese, but it’s the same concept that something isn’t right if you’re suddenly being very formal.  It sounds weird to the point where a lot of girls really don’t like to practice it with their boyfriends.  Sorry guys.

For kanji, unless your girlfriend is really into calligraphy and wants to practice together everyday, she probably won’t be a big resource for helping you there.  Some people try to hand write letters, but most would rather be doing other things, like eating nachos.  A popular solution is email, but I can assure you, everyone can type a ZILLION more kanji than they can actually write!  You, me, and most Japanese people under 30 included.  Now there’s even 191 more kanji we’re all supposed to know…so better start writing some really complex love letters!

7.  Jesus that’s fast! Can’t you speak slowly?!  Oh wait…you are?

It may seem like your girlfriend is talking like a machine gun to you, but wait until she gets around her friends…it’s a blur of giggling lightning!  For a lot of us, the only real part we participate in once they get going is listening to how silly or cute we sound if we try to say anything.  That means that most of the time she’s going easy on you.  It’s nice and practical for mutual understanding, but really it’s like using training wheels all the time.  Once you take them off, you’ll crash and burn in real conversations.  An obvious solution is to tell her to speak normally to you, but that often doesn’t last long.  If she tells you at lightning speed to “Bring the chopsticks” はしを持って来てね 「hashiwomottekitene」and you hear “Go to the bridge and back” 橋に行って来てね「hashiniittekitene」she’s probably going to get tired of you fast if you’re gone for an hour while she’s waiting for chopsticks!

橋だろ？！

8.  Your conversation topics will be limited

Some of you might be dating Japanese bioethics experts who take time and care to explain each vocabulary to you to ensure that you understand every word, but most of you will be repeating the following conversation far more often:

A.  今日何食べよう？「kyounanitabeyou?」”What should we eat today?”

B.  さあ、なにがいい？ 「saa, nanigaii?」”Uhh, well what do you want?”

A.  分からない。冷蔵庫に何が入っている？「wakaranai. reizokoninanigahaitteiru?」”I don’t know.  What’s in the fridge?”

B.  あまり何もないよ。「amarinanimonaiyo」”There’s not much.”

On the edge of your seat yet??  It’s like repeating basic Japanese class over and over again.  Some of you will get to delve into deeper topics from time to time, but it’s not like you’re going to be seriously practicing Japanese all the time with every conversation.  It gets tiring to have real deep conversations all the time, so it’s really easy to be lazy and stick to the mundane stuff, and mix in some English when you don’t know the right word and hope she understands.  BAD BAD BAD!

9.  Your girlfriend probably doesn’t know Japanese very well

I hate to criticize your girlfriend without having met her, but her Japanese is probably not perfect.  Unless she’s used to teaching foreigners all the time, it’s likely that she won’t be able to tell you much about how to learn Japanese.  She learned it a loooong time ago, and way differently than you’re going to have to do.  It’s not going to help you that much to go sit in on an elementary school Japanese language class in Japan.  Too much worrying about protecting your anus from mean children to focus anyway.

The Japanese your girlfriend uses isn’t even exactly the same thing you’ll be learning.  Her kanji’s probably off some of the time, and the grammar she uses sometimes won’t be found in your textbook.  That’s okay for basic practice, and it’s great to learn theoretical and practical use of Japanese, but this isn’t Japanese class it’s your GIRLFRIEND.

10.  Just kidding.

Getting a Japanese girlfriend really can improve your Japanese.  A lot.  Please don’t run away from Japanese girls screaming that you need to protect your language skills.  Please.  A lot of them are nice, fun, and might actually speak to you in Japanese.  If you practice with real people, then maybe you won’t sound like a conversation from Nakama or Genki, which will make people laugh way more than if you actually try.  Hopefully you’ll learn lots of cool things about culture, dating style, a new world view, and if you’re lucky, find more meaningful things to talk about than kanji radicals.  Just keep in mind the frustrations and pitfalls along the road, don’t give up, and don’t stop actually studying.  みんな頑張れ！

P.S. All this probably applies to Japanese boyfriends, too, for all of you that like boys and not girls.

This post was written by Nick W., who has traveled throughout many regions of Japan in search of unique cultural gems.  He is currently earning his MBA and has researched topics like folk music in WWII Japan and Ainu cultural revival through music.  His favorite Japanese musician is the late Nujabes.  He does have a nice Japanese girlfriend, but is too lazy to learn much Japanese from her.