I went on the hunt for manga and anime stores - a lot of them are marked on that map I posted - my favorite was definitely the branch of Mandarake in Ikebukuro (http://www.flickr.com/photos/unforth/1389613190/), which specializes in doujinshi, especially shounen-ai doujinshi (maybe I shouldn't admit that ;) ). Animate (http://www.flickr.com/photos/unforth/1389612160/) is pretty awesome, too - I know at least two (the picture is the one in Ikebukuro, but the main branch is Akihabara) - lots of pencil boards, which I love, and manga.
As for jobs, yes - while I was there I was working for my mother long distance. It was awkward to say the least, but it enabled me to make a living.
It was tough to live in a new place with limited knowledge of the language. When I decided to go, I spent the summer refreshing what I'd learned in earlier Japanese courses, but I still speak Japanese at about a kindergarten level, and read at a second or third grade level (maybe 4th - it's hard to gauge that sort of thing - with a dictionary, I can read books aimed at young adults very slowly but with pretty thorough comprehension, though nuanced grammar is still out of my league). It was very isolating, and a lot of my time in Japan I was pretty lonely. It's compounded by the time difference - obviously the first thing to do when lonely is find someone to talk to, but during day light savings time the time difference is 14 hours - so at 9 PM on Monday night EST, it's 11 AM Tuesday morning in Japan (I think I have that right). Thus, in the middle of the day, it's the middle of the night for your friends in America, and when it's evening for you, it's morning for them - and, at least with my friends, that meant that they were mostly still asleep.
The result was that I found it basically impossible to make friends with locals - though part of this was lack of effort on my part. A lot of people are interested in language exchange, and if I were a bit more extroverted, this is a very viable option - people who want to practice their English advertise that they're looking for a speaking partner, and in exchange they'll help you practice your Japanese. It's generally accepted, from what I can tell, that your partner will be the same gender as you, which helps keep it from seeming weird - like, a lot of 20 something Japanese women are looking for language exchange. Of course, so are a lot of weirdo guys. Without an outlet like that, most of my interaction with people was at business, and thus that's the language that I became most proficient at. It got to be that I considered it a good day if I managed to have a conversation in which I was mostly understood and in which I comprehended what was said to me.
My way around the loneliness ended up being making local friends. Through an entirely fortuitous chance, I found a listing by an American who was looking for English speaking gamers to join a D&D game. I'm a gamer, and so this was perfect for me, so I got in touch with her and we decided to meet up. I ended up joining the group and getting to know the other people in it. It wasn't a large circle, and aside from the other girl in the group I didn't get to know any of them that well, but it meant that I had some people to talk to and spend time with in person. I had people to go eat Thanksgiving dinner with when it looked like I'd be on my own in a country where they could care less about Thanksgiving.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-01-03 07:24 pm (UTC)As for jobs, yes - while I was there I was working for my mother long distance. It was awkward to say the least, but it enabled me to make a living.
It was tough to live in a new place with limited knowledge of the language. When I decided to go, I spent the summer refreshing what I'd learned in earlier Japanese courses, but I still speak Japanese at about a kindergarten level, and read at a second or third grade level (maybe 4th - it's hard to gauge that sort of thing - with a dictionary, I can read books aimed at young adults very slowly but with pretty thorough comprehension, though nuanced grammar is still out of my league). It was very isolating, and a lot of my time in Japan I was pretty lonely. It's compounded by the time difference - obviously the first thing to do when lonely is find someone to talk to, but during day light savings time the time difference is 14 hours - so at 9 PM on Monday night EST, it's 11 AM Tuesday morning in Japan (I think I have that right). Thus, in the middle of the day, it's the middle of the night for your friends in America, and when it's evening for you, it's morning for them - and, at least with my friends, that meant that they were mostly still asleep.
The result was that I found it basically impossible to make friends with locals - though part of this was lack of effort on my part. A lot of people are interested in language exchange, and if I were a bit more extroverted, this is a very viable option - people who want to practice their English advertise that they're looking for a speaking partner, and in exchange they'll help you practice your Japanese. It's generally accepted, from what I can tell, that your partner will be the same gender as you, which helps keep it from seeming weird - like, a lot of 20 something Japanese women are looking for language exchange. Of course, so are a lot of weirdo guys. Without an outlet like that, most of my interaction with people was at business, and thus that's the language that I became most proficient at. It got to be that I considered it a good day if I managed to have a conversation in which I was mostly understood and in which I comprehended what was said to me.
My way around the loneliness ended up being making local friends. Through an entirely fortuitous chance, I found a listing by an American who was looking for English speaking gamers to join a D&D game. I'm a gamer, and so this was perfect for me, so I got in touch with her and we decided to meet up. I ended up joining the group and getting to know the other people in it. It wasn't a large circle, and aside from the other girl in the group I didn't get to know any of them that well, but it meant that I had some people to talk to and spend time with in person. I had people to go eat Thanksgiving dinner with when it looked like I'd be on my own in a country where they could care less about Thanksgiving.