i'm long-winded

~in case you didn't know.

whilst doing my "research", i came across my new favourite youtube channel, sharla in japan. her videos are awesome. i guess she's somewhat famous or something. i'm kind of mad that i'm just discovering her now. i've been bingeing on watching her videos to the point where i feel stalkerish. and of course... 

O.o  

soooo~ i started following her on facebook, twitter, and instagram too. cause i'm creepy like that, i guess. anyway, she had posed a few questions to her fb followers earlier in the month for a future blog post she's doing or something. all the info she would have needed was posted within the day... but i didn't know who she was then. and i wanted to answer them just for fun. so i did.

annnnnnd, i can never answer concisely or get to the point without a story. (noticed that, have you?) it was really long, but interesting [to me], and shares some of my history of my love affair with all things japanese.  so, here ya go.

these were sharla's two posts:

"I'm working on a website project and I have some questions for you guys!! (For those of you that are interested in Japan, which I'm assuming is a good number of you, haha) If you could answer that would be amazing!! Skip any questions that you don't feel like answering~ Thank you! < 3

1. ) What got you interested in Japan?

2. ) Have you ever been to Japan? If not, are you considering visiting?

3. ) If you were to plan a trip to Japan, where would you look for information on places to stay, visit, eat, shop etc.? (guide books, google search, websites specialising in Japan...)

4. ) Which websites do you visit all the time? (Not about Japan, just in general!) What do you like about them?"

"Thank you SO much for answering my questions, very helpful and interesting to read!!

☆ One last question for you guys, if you had to pick one, what's the ONE thing you are most interested in about Japan at the moment? (Anime, food, cars, travel spots, pop culture, traditional culture, martial arts, kawaii stuff, video games, cosplay, etc.... )"

and this is my unnecessarily long answer:

i realize this is an older post and you probably don’t need more input, but i feel like answering anyway~ i apologize in advance for the length…

1. at this point, i don’t remember. i did my geography project on japan in grade 9 (i got a b- because i was so enthralled that it ended up being 45 pages long instead of the 10 maximum), but i’m pretty sure there was already an interest by then and that’s why i chose japan over any other country. i don’t think it was any one thing before that – just seeing pictures and thinking it was beautiful, i guess. in grade 10, my brother had a learn japanese audio tape (that’s how old i am…) and i stole it from him. there was no turning back after that. lifelong obsession ensued.

2. i have been to japan once before. hubby and i never went on an official honeymoon, so for our 3rd anniversary, he made my dream of getting there come true. we were there for 10 days. i’m now in the middle of planning our epic return.  still only for 2 weeks, but during HANAMI this time! (30 days to go!!!)

3. since i AM planning a trip to japan, i can tell you that i have been quite well-rounded in my research variety. lol. i have a few guide books from last time (i planned that all myself too) but i mostly use the internet. i use japan-guide. com a lot. white rabbit had made 2 ‘walking tours’ (akihabara and shinjuku) which we pretty cool. i wish they had made more.  but the BEST source of information for trip planning is from vloggers like you. i’ve picked up so many ideas and tips that way.

4. i’m obsessed with pinterest. i spend hours searching and pinning random crap. it’s a place i can do my two favourite things~ hoard and organize. and i spend a good amount of time split between facebook, twitter, youtube, blogger, and a group chat app (online version) called groupme (kind of the same thing as whatsapp).

oh yeah. i also use google maps a lot. it’s good for trip planning too. i love the street view thing where i can just drop that little dude down into the map and wander around the streets of tokyo. it’s almost like being there. …almost.

5. (from the next post) idk if there is ONE thing about japan i’m particularly interested in the most. i was really into traditional things before, especially geisha – not that i’m not still, but my general interest has grown to encompass much more than that. i guess you could just say ‘daily life’ or something like that. everyday things most japanese people would find mundane or boring. those are the things i am fascinated by.

damn. that was even longer than i thought. ~gomen.

wrench in the plan

i'm sad. we went downtown (with the help of my own instructions from last time) to pick up our JR pass exchange orders and tickets to the studio ghibli museum. everything went smoothly - got two 2 week exchange orders totalling an insane $ which we will hand in at the haneda airport JR office for our passes - EXCEPT they were already sold out of ghibli tickets. 2 and a half months in advance! we told the very nice and helpful lady at the JTB office which date we were planning to go. not available. tried a few more dates. not available. turns out, the entire time we are in japan - not available. so sorry. *waaah*  hubby is still trying to figure out another way to get them, but i'm not holding my breath. 
honestly, this really upsets me. it was the only top priority plan we didn't get to do last time. and now that it's happening for the second time... i'm kind of heartbroken. :(

ONLY the JR pass exchange orders were obtained
- no studio ghibli museum tickets

BUT, still superexcited! this trip is going to be amazing. i'm putting the final touches on our plans. i'm making a pinterest board that highlights all the fun things we're planning to do. hopefully, i'll stay on top of things this time and actually post daily pictures on here. 

38 days to go!!

let's

i wrote this back in 2010 and just found it in my email.
~~~~~

i love the idea of the japanese verb ending ~masho, meaning "let's~" such as "tabemasho" = "let's eat". as peter from j-list said, "these statements subtly create a warm and fuzzy atmosphere of cooperation that make people want to do their part for the good of everyone, an important pillar of Japanese polite society." (j-list sideblog - monday, august 23, 2010) it works very well for commands, giving them a softer edge. in english, you often see signs that give commands as what no to do, such as "no smoking" or "don't walk on the grass". it almost gives you an immediate feeling of wanting to break the rule just because you were told not to, an f-u to authority. but in japan, "let's not smoke" has more of the idea of everyone working together so as not to upset everyone else. if the sign in english read "we don't want to smoke because it might upset those around you"... or something.... i would be more likely to want to not do said behaviour. (and i don't even smoke anyway!)

when i was training for management in retail, i was told that you will get more of a positive outcome as well as respect if you add yourself into a request, such as "we need to be more aware of customers" when you yourself are already aware but the person you are addressing is the one who needs to work on it. it makes the person feel more like the member of a team and not just a subordinate. in staff meetings, we would actually use let's frequently, as in "let's work together in keeping the shelves tidy". it works very well for employees and also for children. if only the west would adopt the feeling of working together as a whole society instead of the everyone for themselves type of thinking. i think it would just be a nicer place to live~