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I return!
7 years ago
Hey again, everyone!
After another super long day of travel, I've returned from Japan! I'm still a bit jet lagged, but I'll get by. I hope you all had fun while I was gone!
Japan was a crazy good time, and the food was completely out of this world. I'm glad to be home, though! I've been a desert rat my whole life, and I'm pretty dang uncomfortable with being in a place where there's that much moisture in the air.
All of the Japanese language study did turn out to be helpful. I was able to fumble my way through basic interactions with people, and navigate well enough. Interestingly, I found that the most useful bit by far was being able to read katakana. I get the feeling that, even if I couldn't also read hiragana and some very modest kanji, and if I couldn't speak or understand the language at all, just having katakana would have gotten me pretty far. Being able to pick the loan words out of sentences on signs and product labels is huge, and you can generally get most of the rest of it from context.
Anyway, it was a blast, but it's good to be back!
After another super long day of travel, I've returned from Japan! I'm still a bit jet lagged, but I'll get by. I hope you all had fun while I was gone!
Japan was a crazy good time, and the food was completely out of this world. I'm glad to be home, though! I've been a desert rat my whole life, and I'm pretty dang uncomfortable with being in a place where there's that much moisture in the air.
All of the Japanese language study did turn out to be helpful. I was able to fumble my way through basic interactions with people, and navigate well enough. Interestingly, I found that the most useful bit by far was being able to read katakana. I get the feeling that, even if I couldn't also read hiragana and some very modest kanji, and if I couldn't speak or understand the language at all, just having katakana would have gotten me pretty far. Being able to pick the loan words out of sentences on signs and product labels is huge, and you can generally get most of the rest of it from context.
Anyway, it was a blast, but it's good to be back!
I really hope you enjoyed Japan, tell me everywhere that you went!
One day I really want to return to East Asia, but I think I'd be steered more towards China or Taiwan just because I am a relentless lover of Chinese cuisine. :}
I hope you have a chance to! This was my first time ever leaving my home country, so it was quite an adventure.
I'd also like to see Nagasaki for its considerable history as one of the first ports of Japan opened to foreign trade.
wait aren't you a forest derg tho? Humidity should be your friend. :P
heh... as an island nation, I figure Japan might a bit like the Caymans... though I imagine it's a bit cooler and a lot more mountainous. Not to mention bigger!
Someday I wanna try Hokkaido in the winter but that's like...peak tourist season and expensive as heck.
I bet that would be lovely! We didn't make it up to Hokkaido, but we were able to hit a bunch of other areas.