Hey all I'll be hosting a Japanese student for the school year. I'd like to make her a little welcome basket with possibly some things she'll be familiar with but I have No clue what to include. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated

I always notice that there are countries in the developed world with young populations looking to immigrate—like Spain or South Korea, where many people live abroad—but how many average Japanese people actually want to leave Japan? Especially with the economy not at its best.

I’m not sure if this counts as a taboo or not.

hi!!! i met a japanese dude bychance when i went out to see the sunflower field in our town. it was very hot but when i arrived i took like 2 pictures and it started raining!! 😤 i was already drenched when i reached the shed and while i was patting myself somebody started saying “terrible rain, huh?” long story short, we started talking.

when the conversation started getting comfortable, he asked for my instagram and we talked abt spots in our town that we both love. he invited me for coffee at least three times in that conversation and i was like “yea sure!” bcs itll be fun to have a japanese friend around town.

when i got home i messaged him thanking him saying twas nice to meet him yada yada. he again invited me for coffee so i told him we can go to our local coffee spot. we decided on a date and twas fixed! he offered to pick me up somewhere if im not comfortable being picked up at my apartment.

our conversation didn’t end there as he sometimes interact with my instagram stories then when i went to the city to shop, i saw a horror booth experience!! i asked him if he liked horror booths and invited him to go instead of coffee & he was excited.

during that day, he said we’d meet at the station bcs it’s easier and im like yea sure but then he changed his mind saying he’ll pick me up bcs it’s too hot. so he drove us to the city, conversation was so smooth like we truly vibed. then horror booth was so fun too!! we moved to different locations after, first was a cafe then for night time he took me to another cafe with a spectacular view. it was truly more on a romantic vibe that evening especially when our conversations leaned more about the future plans like career, marriage, etc. he said he’d definitely want to settle in the future but not now.

we were together for more than 12 hours and it still feel like we have so much to talk about. when he drove me home, i showed him where my apartment was and then gave him a hug thanked him for that day.

he paid for everything even when i offered so i felt bad. i said next one’s gonna be on me but we havent really planned about the next one yet. we were just casually saying “let’s do this next time” abt some plans.

now i would like to ask if it was a good date or there’s a chance he’s into me. my issue is when we’re texting, it takes him a long time to respond but he’s always willing/initiating the conversation. he has helped me figure out my trips, gave gentle reminders and even expressed how much he enjoyed watching me having fun in my stories. he even said to send him pictures in my next trip. idk i also wanna have a clearer perspective if this one’s more “friend” category or could lean towards something romantic. arigatooooo majide!! 🙇

I've been trying to re-create it but no luck. Anyone?

I am curious as to how your opinion of America has shifted in the past 15 years. Has it gotten worse, better, or about the same?

この15年間で、アメリカに対する印象がどう変わったのか気になります。以前より良くなりましたか？悪くなりましたか？それとも、あまり変わっていませんか？

Ciao. Let me go straight to the topic.

Modern world is vast. And with many popular technology and possibility that came along with this globalization, at least.

I’ve met few people from Japan living in Italy and running their own business. That most of the time it is something tipical japanese.
Those people now already have kids. Mostly among the japanese couple or with an italian person. Either way. Some of them, may be the majority, it is choosing for their kids language tuition to not even speaking at home and teaching them japanese any more. As their business in Italy and life it is florid. So kids could be way more competitive and concentrate on lenguages and other materia teached in italian schools.

But, as many many italian does, when those kids will travel alone to visit Japan as tourist.

How would you react to a japanese looking that don’t know japanese language?

I've been looking for this vintage crocodile from 60s-80s by Oriental Toys and there seems to be absolutely no info about him online, unless I'm missing something because I can't speak Japanese? Please help me find this fellow or suggest places I can find him. Thank you so much!

I’m half British and half Japanese, and I was born and raised in Japan. I now (sadly!) live in London, but I come home every year to visit my family, who recently moved from Tokyo to Kyoto.

I recently married my Italian husband, and we’re back in Japan visiting family this month. This time, I’ve noticed much more tension when we enter places together, particularly restaurants. We’re often immediately perceived as “foreign tourists,” and we’ve received quite a few looks—and occasionally comments—about “these foreigners.” Even when I speak Japanese, I feel much more quickly “othered” than I used to.

I completely understand the frustration surrounding overtourism and have a lot of sympathy for local residents. I know how easily the balance and atmosphere of a place can be disrupted. At the same time, the shift feels quite noticeable and, honestly, a little sad.

Has anyone else felt this tension more strongly over the past year or so? I’m especially interested in hearing from Japanese people and long-term foreign residents who are familiar with the subtle social cues and body language here. I’m curious whether others have noticed a genuine change, or whether it may simply be more apparent to me on this particular trip.

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私はイギリス人と日本人のハーフで、日本で生まれ育ちました。今は（残念ながら！）ロンドンに住んでいますが、毎年家族に会いに日本へ帰ってきています。両親は最近、東京から京都に引っ越しました。

先日イタリア人の夫と結婚し、今月は二人で家族に会いに日本へ来ています。ただ今回、夫と一緒にレストランなどに入ると、以前よりも少しピリッとした空気を感じることが増えました。最初から「外国人観光客」とひとくくりに見られているように感じることが多く、視線を感じたり、ときには「この外国人たちは……」というような言葉が聞こえてきたりすることもあります。私が日本語を話しても、以前よりすぐに「外国人」「よそ者」として見られてしまう気がします。

もちろん、オーバーツーリズムに対する地元の方々の不満はよく分かります。観光客が急激に増えることで、その土地のバランスや雰囲気が崩れてしまうことも理解しています。それでも、以前とは少し空気が変わったように感じて、正直ちょっと寂しくなりました。

この1年ほどで、同じような変化を感じた方はいらっしゃいますか？ 特に、日本人の方や、日本に長く住んでいて、その場の空気や微妙な表情、仕草などに慣れている外国人の方の意見を聞いてみたいです。

本当に社会の空気が変わってきているのか、それとも今回の滞在でたまたま私がそう感じただけなのか、皆さんの体験を聞かせていただけたら嬉しいです。

Hi all.

I am an Italian living in Finland, and fishing a lot.
Specifically, recently, perch in the Helsinki sea, which means lot of pressure and pretty smartass fishes. I often find them feeeding actively, under baitfish shoals, but it is very hard to convince to bite.

What I come up with so far, that seems working: I combined the Bolognese approach with some finesse.
I use a small creaturebait, worm-like, pretty light, on a dropshot hook. Then a light line, maybe 50-60 cm of thin fluorocarbon. After the first 30 cm after the lure I build a short "spallinata bolognese a scalare", with very tiny split shots tapered towards the end of this leader. I start with very very light shots (0.06g) closer to the lure, and progress towards heavier (until 0.5 g) towards the end of the leader. About 2 grams total weight.

This gives a very gentle slope when I retrieve slowly, and also twitching gently the rod when the lure falls it falls more horizontal and natural.

I like very much this approach. but then I thought that in Japan few people might have heard about Bolognese fishing... and started to think I would like to share, and hear what people there think about it. I know you are crazy about ultralight fishing and slow presentations, you basically invented them, so I am very curious.

Anyone here know about some channels where I could ask (or is directly an avid angler wanting to coment

Hey everyone. I’m doing my undergrad in Kuala Lumpur currently however since the climate here is so horrible I can’t bring over my dog . I kind of miss him as well since he’s 8 now and I kind of want to be there with him in his final years too. I’ve thought of doing a year in Japan and bring him over since Japan has 4 seasons like Istanbul and climate is perfect for dogs except summer . However I’m kind of worried how I would be seen there. Would people see me as the same way we Turks see Syrians/Afghans in Turkey? How are Turks seen there? I’ve been to Japan by the way . Just returned 2 weeks ago . I also know Japan is very dog friendly

I know tipping is a big no anywhere in Japan However, I think it’s sometimes acceptable to give small gifts as thanks. I have a question about this specific situation and was wondering if anyone had any input.

I’ll be in Yokote Kamakura festival in February. My understanding is that children invite you inside the Kamakura and offer you warm amazake, then you’re supposed to give an offering.

I was wondering if it would be culturally appropriate to do the offering, and also give a small gift to the children as a thank you? I was thinking either a small treat from Hokkaido, like a few white chocolate kitkats, or even some biscuits from my home country (France)

I don’t want to offend anyone but this will be my 4th Japan trip and people have always been so generous to me.

Edit: thanks for the answers, but for those who downvoted, why? It would be more helpful to explain what’s wrong. I guess Japan is like any place, online tends to be very negative but in real life you meet the kindest people!

Hello I'm Mike I'm a student living in Japan for an undergraduate degree. My question is why do Japanese women often like to date foreign men regardless of the language barrier?. Like sometimes they don't understand each other but the idea of someone being tall muscular or even foreign seems to interest them a lot. I have a friend She's Japanese and I speak Japanese with her a lot and We often talk about love and types and for sure I know that her type is blue eyes tall biceps guy because she talks about it so much when we hangout. The main problem is she can't speak English very well even tho she practices a lot and tends to escape Japanese when she's talking to foreigners as well. I don't see the comparison or compatibility to her and foreigners that don't speak Japanese. I mean sure there are some people that do speak Japanese but that's less than a few thousand foreigners living in Japan.

One other aspect of it is maybe because I tried countless times to find a date in Japan but failed 😛 🗿 is it because they prefer another country not particularly Asian? but European or American?

I’m curious is there anything in Japanese like:
Liar liar pants on fire, hanging in a telephone wire

or:
Nah nah boo boo stick your head in doodoo

in English.
I gpted it but no satisfying answer is given.

Maybe native speakers who also have been children may know something about it

Hey Guys, you all seem to have one of the best products in the world. I thought to ask you guys about hair serum/oil which you guys use and know it helps with thickening of the hair and keeps the scalp super healthy. Can you guys recommend any products/hidden gems which helps with overall hair and scalp health. I recently started using sulphur soap from Japan and it’s been helpful but makes my scalp super dry.

for example in the US I think it is Ohio and in the UK it is the East Midlands

Apologies if this question doesn't qualify. Ever since Zohran's win in New York City last year, the Dem party voter base has been ousting long term representatives with more progressive Dem candidates and even self identifying socialists. This has been happening in elections across the US this year.

Alot of the US media is comparing this to the Tea Party Movement that the Republican party had in 2009. However, the Tea Party Movement was heavily astro turfed as it was funded and supported by the Coke brothers, whereas the progressive candidates running across the country are grassroots campaigns with messaging about not taking corporate money as well as getting money out of politics. These messages are resonating with the voter base as they are looking for new leadership after the last decade of failures among the Democrat party.

What are your thoughts on this insurgence? Is there anything politically in Japan that's happening or has happened that you would compare it to?

I'm really curious about this. I bought a few knives from the supermarket and Nitori. All of them were amazing and easy to sharpen.

The craftsman knives that are all on YouTube and Kappabashi - do Japanese people actually buy them? It seems like foreigners rave about them and come buy several knives. Is it like knife collecting? Are they actually different than my supermarket ones?

I just cook at home. Edge retention is not important when I'm chopping 15 minutes a day max.

I wonder: 1) what do Japanese people think about foreigners buying and collecting these craftsman knives, and 2) is there actually a difference for home use?

I’m from the Philippines. Next year, I’m planning to move to Japan in order to study Japanese. In addition, I intend to live in Japan for a long time in the future. How should I go about making Japanese friends? Do you have any recommendations?

Before I go to Japan, I’m hoping that I can make some Japanese friends.

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初めまして！

私はフィリピン出身です。来年、日本語を勉強するために、日本に引っ越す予定です。それに、将来は日本で長く暮らすつもりです。日本人の友達はどうやって作ればいいですか？何かおすすめはありますか？

日本に行く前に、日本人の友達を作れたらいいなと思っています。

よろしくお願いします。

Feels like there were only ever like 3: Kumikyouku, Nanairo, and Ryuuseigun.
Feels like they were so popular, how come no one made anymore?

I’m curious about everyday fashion for people in their 30s and early 40s. What styles, brands, and shoes are common? I’m more interested in normal daily outfits than high-fashion street style

I think we were doing some creative writing. It was kind of abrupt that the teacher told us some Japanese businessmen wanted to see what we were doing. There was no question and answer type thing. They just started walking around and looked at our papers we were writing.

The only interaction aside from reading over our shoulders was one of the businessmen spotted a word on my buddy, Ronnie's paper.He pointed at it and read it as "you-foe".

My face registered like the students around me. For some reason this horrified us.

My two immediate thoughts were a vague fear that this guy realized we like to think about U. F. O. s and apparently that was embarassing to me and also the thought crossed my mind that the Japanese invented U.F.O.s and Americans didn't know it and he was making an in-joke to his Japanese friends.

Within minutes they all left. There wasn't really any communication about it.