My Tokyo Blog (well, sort of)

[ChaseDizzy]

why do you prefer the daikanyama hare? and where is rage blue? i'll check that out too i guess. is it cheaper?

edit: and global work

[herpsky]

very few tourists or shoppers. distraction free.

global work is on the way to hare. its on your right if you are taking the path behind daikanyama address.

i dunno if rage blue has a store in daikanyama. there's one on CAT street (the street real mad hectic is on. the path to the left of the RL flagship on omotesando). but it's not on the harajuku side of cat street. if you walk on meiji dori from shibuya towards harajuku, there's a Y intersection. veer right and it's cat street (the street behind urban research). it's right by BURTON TYO.

[herpsky]

i dunno about the pricing but the stuff is more affordable (and perhaps more stylish) than arrows, ships, nano universe, or beams house labels.

[ChaseDizzy]

Well thanks, i guess i'll print all this info out for when i get there...Will it all make sense when i arrive?

[herpsky]

using map.google.com will be helpful.

just get the physical addresses of the stores.

i dont personally own the 25 dollar (or whatever) superfuture tokyo guide so i dont know whether the stores are listed there.

a lot of japanese magazines include tokyo shopping map / booklets ~twice a year.

i just use those. out of all the maps i used, the ones that come with SMART were the best.

free sufu maps are pretty good but they are way too clumped and its difficult to tell the exact locations of the stores.

i have seen URAHARA maps being distributed at stores for tourists but they werent that great.

[ChaseDizzy]

thanks herps...this might be a little hard for me, hope i find everything. got anything you can scan up for me?

[dismalfuture]

^ Cabane de Zucca is pretty cheap, similar to Hare sometimes but a little nicer IMO Less of that bitchy Asian teenager vibe. in Aoyama.

[herpsky]

zucca is expensive.

tee approx. 10,000 yen

jackets approx 50,000 yen and up

[lacquered]

Nah, you got it wrong. Jgirls hate overconfident dudes. When I was a quiet nerdy kid I got tons of Jpussy in Australia. These days, coz I`m older and dont give a fuck what ppl think about me anymore I`m just like "yo, whatsup" to any girl, in Japanese whatever, I got no problem with small talk in japanese. But Ive seen lots of nerdy kids and quiet guys with almost NO japanese skills get the hottest girls here. Was just out and this older banker with perfect japanese in our party tried street nanpa on a couple of girls that walked past, said he had the lines and the moves. From what I could tell the girls just looked scared and he didnt get any numbers.

In my higly-informed opinion (10 years experience hitting on jgirls) to get girls in Tokyo u gotta be under 25, skinny and quiet. Also helps to fit the nice guy, "ladies first" image whites have here.

Totally agree with milspex. This is what I used to do back in HS, got some jpussy too:p. But quiet at clubs might get you unnoticed with the girls, no?

[ProfMonnitoff]

By the way, if anyone is still looking for the HARE store, you're better off finding the Viridi-Anne store first and then walking down the street from there because I must have walked past HARE in Harajuku 2 times without noticing it the first time I was in Japan.

[cuddlysheep]

picked up lad mus, short trench in black.

[thewindsong]

oh i get it now, most guys who are getting laid in tokyo actually have to pay for it.

i agree that girls in asia, beside japan, are pretty easy to pull if you're good looking or "rich".

[dizzhizz]

oh i get it now, most guys who are getting laid in tokyo actually have to pay for it.

i agree that girls in asia, beside japan, are pretty easy to pull if you're good looking or "rich".

I think this applies universally.

[Guest jmatsu]

Totally agree with milspex. This is what I used to do back in HS, got some jpussy too:p. But quiet at clubs might get you unnoticed with the girls, no?

i don't totally agree with milspex. it all depends on the situation and target. i never do that "nice guy" facade-shit. i think if sex is what you're after, then you should take a "going all out-totally over the top/ arrogant over-confident badboy-asshole" approach. less complicated. you won't get lumped in the "friends" category. either you're "in" or "out."

[djrajio]

It really depends on the character of the female. Some girls like agressive guys, some don't, you just gotta calibrate to fit the individual. But I personally can't be bothered playing the overly "nice guy" role; it takes too much energy and time and money (all of which are precious to me). Thing is "nice guy" is such a blanket term but to me it means "door-mat" = the guy friend. The type of guy that hides his sexual desires for a woman, fawns his true intentions, listens to her problems w/ other guys, and basically isn't assertive. If I want a girl, I'll go get her. If she looks hot in a dress, I'll let her know. I'm not worried if she rejects me but at the same time, I play hands I'm confident I can win.

You can be sincere, respectiveful, caring, etc. with a woman and not be labeled a "nice guy". It pretty much rests in your ability to communiate w/ a woman from the get-go that you like her/want her sexually and then acting when the time is right.

[poly800rock]

you really need to write a book

[Guest jmatsu]

You can be sincere, respectiveful, caring, etc. with a woman and not be labeled a "nice guy". It pretty much rests in your ability to communiate w/ a woman from the get-go that you like her/want her sexually and then acting when the time is right.

i think you're right, but i usually just get all caveman in a nanpa/club situation. i guess the individual just has to do what works for them. my method is for pure probability/numbers and time efficiency.

yo, i'm in sendai. i'll hit you up when i'm in your neck of the woods...

[Ichigo100%]

Djrajio,

That was very well put, enjoyed the read..

[herpsky]

i think you're right, but i usually just get all caveman in a nanpa/club situation. i guess the individual just has to do what works for them. my method is for pure probability/numbers and time efficiency.

yo, i'm in sendai. i'll hit you up when i'm in your neck of the woods...

what are you doing in sendai

[Guest jmatsu]

what are you doing in sendai

biz and eating beeftongue when i can.

[thelion1856]

Don't know why I'm agreeing with mil so much in this thread, but this is another partial truth.

A few japanese male friends have separately told me that J-girls are suckers for the "nice guy" thing. Like, offering to carry something for someone, etc etc.

Of course this depends on the girl, but if you're full out foreigner (whitey), I doubt they're searching for the all too common japanese male attitude of "fuck it i'll say what I want/do what I want, fuck you", only in the body of a white male. If you look like a magazine model or something equally desireable to them, you could probably do anything and they'd still be down, but J-girls that even consider white guys(or whatever) an option are most likely also looking for the attitude and outlook that they think goes with it. White dudes have the image of ladies first, being considerate etc, which is the reason you occasionally see guys who in the US would get ZERO play with acceptably attractive japanese girls.

Im sure people's opinions might differ, and for halves I could see this being very different, they expect you to be a typical japanese who looks exotic.

i agree with this as i witnessed my friend who is the white boy dorkey looking/acting/sounding dude have a threesome with 2 hot japanese exchange students at a party about 6 years ago. he is still dating one of them and for a lil while was hooking up with both of them. Also he is into japanese culture like no other nth degree black belt or some shit. he even teaches a form of martial arts.

[Guest jmatsu]

i agree with this as i witnessed my friend who is the white boy dorkey looking/acting/sounding dude have a threesome with 2 hot japanese exchange students at a party about 6 years ago. he is still dating one of them and for a lil while was hooking up with both of them. Also he is into japanese culture like no other nth degree black belt or some shit. he even teaches a form of martial arts.

from the way you describe him, he sounds like a total douche. 2 hot exchange students? too each his own i guess...

[so-so]

I don't usually like people like him.

I guess I shouldn't be one to talk, being a white guy currently living in Japan. But people who only pursue asian girls, people who say they wish they were japanese or whatever just annoy the fuck out of me. It's one thing to appreciate a culture but it's another thing entirely to be so goddamn into it that it commands every move you make.

I guess alot of this "hate" is in part due to the fact that the image white foreign males in Japan have is dictated a lot in part by these types. I've been so tempted on many occasions when I see a foreigner speaking shitty Japanese or English or whatever to a Japanese girl who's just eating it up to just break into the conversation and let her know that she is dating someone who is faaaar from the "catch" she thinks she has.

Jealousy maybe? perhaps a bit, since even if I try I can't lower myself down to that obnoxious tourist level, as effective as it may be.

While I'm on the ranting topic, another thing that bothers the hell out of me is people who claim to be "fluent" or something close to it but are no where near close. Maybe it's because by my definition of "fluent" - as in close to native level- there are very few fluent western foreigners in Japan. I have no animosity towards people learning the language, but don't try to build yourself up on a falsity while putting other people down.

I guess this comes from meeting a guy the other day who said he was near fluent, then hearing him talk and finding out he's not even to where I'd call intermediate. This happens to me a lot in the states too, I guess since I'm exposed to a lot of people studying the language. Also, most japanese people (i'd imagine the jmatsu's of japan aren't one of these) tend to unrightfully build these people up by immediately proclaiming anyone who can say hello as "amazing!".

Just kind of venting I guess.

[mizanation]

the problem with foreigners in japan and japanese fluency is that if you speak two words in japanese, everyone in japan will say, "your japanese is awesome!" just to be nice. to compliment someone, deserving or not, is a japanese trait that most foreigners don't understand. so, people get this false sense that their japanese really is fluent when it is not so much.

i've only met two foreign-born non-2nd-generation-japanese-immigrant people who are pretty much fluent in japanese. both of them have been married to a japanese woman for years. one of them has lived in okinawa for the past decade. the other one co-owns a men's boutique on greene street.

[coleslawyum]

Also Santos-san and his wife, from years of Japanese language instructional video, are really fluent. He even has the mannerisms down.

[thewindsong]

i don't know where to put this, but it's pretty funny.

Worst restaurant experience ever (kintaro ramen)

Well folks, this joint has gone downhill in a hurry. A few years ago it was good, but after today's disaster we won't be back, and we'll be advising everyone we know to stay away. Here's the skinny:

My wife, 13-month old baby,and I arrived a few minutes before opening today (Aug.7/07). We dutifully took our place in line (there were about 5 or 6 people ahead of us) on a rainy Tuesday. A waitress came out and handed everyone menus, returning a few minutes later to take advance orders. The couple ahead of us were the last to order; the waitress inexplicably stopped there and returned inside (so why give us a menu in the first pleace?). It wasn't a good omen.

When the doors opened everyone took a seat and I immediately wondered how the staff would remember who was first in line.Sure enough, soon everyone had ordered, including a lot of people behind us in line before she came to our table (so what's the point in lining up?). My wife (she's Japanese) called the waitress over and told her that we hadn't ordered yet (meanwhile, some people were already getting served). She took our order and we waited, and waited, and waited. Everyone we were sharing the large table with in front now had food in front of them except us. 12:15 rolls by, then 12:30. WTF? Some people were now finished and leaving. Fed up,I asked my wife to again have a word with the idiot "managing" the floor (the same 20-something Japanese ESL student). My wife tore a strip off her (our baby was now getting fussy as well) and we got up to leave. It was now 12:40PM...we'd been waiting 40 mins.+ for a couple of bowls of soup and had only been given glasses of water, that's it. Remember, we about fifth in line. We stormed out and my wife again gave the waitress hell outside the restaurant. We got empty apologies. What a waste of time. Hungry and pissed off, we returned home.

[fre-co]

everyone else enjoyed theirs though?

[MilSpex]

I don't usually like people like him.

I guess I shouldn't be one to talk, being a white guy currently living in Japan. But people who only pursue asian girls, people who say they wish they were japanese or whatever just annoy the fuck out of me. It's one thing to appreciate a culture but it's another thing entirely to be so goddamn into it that it commands every move you make.

I guess alot of this "hate" is in part due to the fact that the image white foreign males in Japan have is dictated a lot in part by these types. I've been so tempted on many occasions when I see a foreigner speaking shitty Japanese or English or whatever to a Japanese girl who's just eating it up to just break into the conversation and let her know that she is dating someone who is faaaar from the "catch" she thinks she has.

Jealousy maybe? perhaps a bit, since even if I try I can't lower myself down to that obnoxious tourist level, as effective as it may be.

While I'm on the ranting topic, another thing that bothers the hell out of me is people who claim to be "fluent" or something close to it but are no where near close. Maybe it's because by my definition of "fluent" - as in close to native level- there are very few fluent western foreigners in Japan. I have no animosity towards people learning the language, but don't try to build yourself up on a falsity while putting other people down.

I guess this comes from meeting a guy the other day who said he was near fluent, then hearing him talk and finding out he's not even to where I'd call intermediate. This happens to me a lot in the states too, I guess since I'm exposed to a lot of people studying the language. Also, most japanese people (i'd imagine the jmatsu's of japan aren't one of these) tend to unrightfully build these people up by immediately proclaiming anyone who can say hello as "amazing!".

Just kind of venting I guess.

Sounds like you got a bad case of the (get out of) MY Japan Syndrome.

[MilSpex]

i don't know where to put this, but it's pretty funny.

Worst restaurant experience ever (kintaro ramen)

Well folks, this joint has gone downhill in a hurry. A few years ago it was good, but after today's disaster we won't be back, and we'll be advising everyone we know to stay away. Here's the skinny:

My wife, 13-month old baby,and I arrived a few minutes before opening today (Aug.7/07). We dutifully took our place in line (there were about 5 or 6 people ahead of us) on a rainy Tuesday. A waitress came out and handed everyone menus, returning a few minutes later to take advance orders. The couple ahead of us were the last to order; the waitress inexplicably stopped there and returned inside (so why give us a menu in the first pleace?). It wasn't a good omen.

When the doors opened everyone took a seat and I immediately wondered how the staff would remember who was first in line.Sure enough, soon everyone had ordered, including a lot of people behind us in line before she came to our table (so what's the point in lining up?). My wife (she's Japanese) called the waitress over and told her that we hadn't ordered yet (meanwhile, some people were already getting served). She took our order and we waited, and waited, and waited. Everyone we were sharing the large table with in front now had food in front of them except us. 12:15 rolls by, then 12:30. WTF? Some people were now finished and leaving. Fed up,I asked my wife to again have a word with the idiot "managing" the floor (the same 20-something Japanese ESL student). My wife tore a strip off her (our baby was now getting fussy as well) and we got up to leave. It was now 12:40PM...we'd been waiting 40 mins.+ for a couple of bowls of soup and had only been given glasses of water, that's it. Remember, we about fifth in line. We stormed out and my wife again gave the waitress hell outside the restaurant. We got empty apologies. What a waste of time. Hungry and pissed off, we returned home.

Japs dont like foreigners or babys in restaurants so you`re lucky you even got a table. Go eat at subway, they got the shrimp and avacado sub going at the moment. Good stuff and limited racism. Japanese food sucks anyway. Ramen is basically Chinese and the Chinese version tastes way better imo.

[braydendevito]

haha I study japanese and I KNOW i'm not fluent..

learning japanese in america is super ineffective...

ive been learning for like 5 years and I MIGHT be at an intermediate level..

granted.. i'll be going to tokyo soon to study at a language institute.

I always thought about foreigners in japan.. like.. you never see people from china or japan coming to america and trying to take every girl out there.. just dosn't happen. haha.