15357
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- Jan 11, 2005
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with the offensive forces of the 237th Infantry... 
No seriously, I just came back from a field trip to Japan ('cause my secondary major is Japanese). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, because I forgot to take my camera.
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Japan wasn't altogether so weird, it was almost like my own country, save for the smaller roads and highly developed alleys. But what really bugged me was the cost of everything.
They had coins worth about $5 (500 yen), and the smallest paper note was in the equivalent of $10. 2 slices of pizza, which would have normally cost in any other country about $3 ~ $5, it cost nearly $12. I could survive well enough in Cambodia for 40 days with the money required for a single meal in Japan, and almost a week in my own country or the US.
Everything cost at the very least 2 times what would cost in my country or the US, and I saw a hamburger in Mcdonalds that cost 3500 won in Korea (about $3.8) go for 1400 yen (about $14). I mean, how the **** do they survive? Do they eat like 3 meals a week or something? Perhaps that explains the lack of fat people in Japan (or Cambodia, for that matter). If we went to Tokyo, it would have been much worse.
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The streets and alleys of Osaka were pretty, however. Despite being no more than a lane in length, all the alleys had their own traffic signals (which I found cost-ineffective), and the shopping streets were extremely colorful. As long as you didn't buy anything, you could appreciate the beauty of a developed city in the alleys of Osaka.
What I truly appreciated, though, were the schoolgirl uniforms. It provided +200 to the cuteness of a girl, and the miniskirts, unlike our girls' long skirts, were quite a sight to see.
The girls themselves weren't exactly pretty, but a rare few were extremely cute Thank you "Osaka Second Middle School"!
Ahem.
Anyway, our school went to places like temples (which were dissapointingly very alike our own), and the castles (filled with tourists and "Osaka First Middle School" students). We visted the Kansai university, which also disapointed us. However, we did get to go to the hot springs, which were wonderful.
When we got to the mass grave of Korean soldiers taken prisoner and killed in the "Seven Years War", we had a moment of slience, and anger flowed. The next stop was the shrine to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was the one who ordered the invasion of Korea. I spat in the shrine when nobody was looking, and I suspect many others did the same. One day, I vowed, they would have their just desserts.
Anyway, it was all awesome, perhaps disapointgly similiar to my country and devoid of hot schoolgirls, but still a very nice place to visit, even if its the land of the 'hated enemy' and the 'barbarian hordes'. The people were nice enough, I suppose, as they weren't quite what I had expected them to be: perfectionists and scrooge-esque cheapskates.
Too tired to write further....
No seriously, I just came back from a field trip to Japan ('cause my secondary major is Japanese). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures, because I forgot to take my camera.
---------------
Japan wasn't altogether so weird, it was almost like my own country, save for the smaller roads and highly developed alleys. But what really bugged me was the cost of everything.
They had coins worth about $5 (500 yen), and the smallest paper note was in the equivalent of $10. 2 slices of pizza, which would have normally cost in any other country about $3 ~ $5, it cost nearly $12. I could survive well enough in Cambodia for 40 days with the money required for a single meal in Japan, and almost a week in my own country or the US.
Everything cost at the very least 2 times what would cost in my country or the US, and I saw a hamburger in Mcdonalds that cost 3500 won in Korea (about $3.8) go for 1400 yen (about $14). I mean, how the **** do they survive? Do they eat like 3 meals a week or something? Perhaps that explains the lack of fat people in Japan (or Cambodia, for that matter). If we went to Tokyo, it would have been much worse.
----------------
The streets and alleys of Osaka were pretty, however. Despite being no more than a lane in length, all the alleys had their own traffic signals (which I found cost-ineffective), and the shopping streets were extremely colorful. As long as you didn't buy anything, you could appreciate the beauty of a developed city in the alleys of Osaka.
What I truly appreciated, though, were the schoolgirl uniforms.
It provided +200 to the cuteness of a girl, and the miniskirts, unlike our girls' long skirts, were quite a sight to see. The girls themselves weren't exactly pretty, but a rare few were extremely cute
Thank you "Osaka Second Middle School"!Ahem.
Anyway, our school went to places like temples (which were dissapointingly very alike our own), and the castles (filled with tourists and "Osaka First Middle School" students). We visted the Kansai university, which also disapointed us. However, we did get to go to the hot springs, which were wonderful.
When we got to the mass grave of Korean soldiers taken prisoner and killed in the "Seven Years War", we had a moment of slience, and anger flowed. The next stop was the shrine to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was the one who ordered the invasion of Korea. I spat in the shrine when nobody was looking, and I suspect many others did the same. One day, I vowed, they would have their just desserts.
Anyway, it was all awesome, perhaps disapointgly similiar to my country and devoid of hot schoolgirls, but still a very nice place to visit, even if its the land of the 'hated enemy' and the 'barbarian hordes'.
The people were nice enough, I suppose, as they weren't quite what I had expected them to be: perfectionists and scrooge-esque cheapskates. Too tired to write further....
