日本語会話: The Japanese Conversation Thread

[GoktimusPrime]

True. I noticed a lot of people are using that "tap and go" mobile phone payment system over there!

[GoktimusPrime]

第2巻：京都 / PART 2: KYOTO

京都の街 / Streets of Kyoto






京料理かじ / At a Kyoto cuisine restaurant










忍者レストラン！ / Ninja restaurant!


電子王座 / The electronic throne


この宅配車のマスコットはちょっとカンタスカンガルーみたいだけど、変わったところはスピードラインとジョ ーイも加えられた!
This deliver truck mascot looks like the Qantas Kangaroo, but they added speed lines and a joey!


清水寺に行こう！ / Let's go to Kiyomizudera Temple!


この高い坂を登って / Walking up this steep slope




人力車 / Rickshaw


ハロー・キティーの店 / Hello Kitty shop


神道の神々の彫像 / Statues of Shinto Gods


清水寺から見えるの景色 / The view from Kiyomizudera




音羽の滝 / Otowa waterfall


おむつを変える時間だ！ / time for nappy change!


このアイスクリーム食べたい？ / Want some ice cream?


祇園の八坂神社 / Yasaka Shrine in Gion


お酒 / Saké


でかいオバケの兎！ / Big monster bunny


超ベリー綺麗な電車！（豪州の汚い電車と全然違うね！） / Japanese trains are so clean!


クリフジャンパー / Cliffjumper


嵐山のサルにえさを与えて / feeding the monkeys at Mt. Arashiyama


またクリフ / Cliffjumper again


東映映画村 / Toei Movie Village






ニンジャになった！/ We became NINJA!




侍に殺されちゃった! / Killed by a samurai!


忍者ショー / the Ninja Show




第四の壁を突破する / Breaking the fourth wall


第四の壁を突撃する！/ Attacking the fourth wall!


トラフォプライムのビーコンを持っている芸者さん / a geisha holding a TF Prime Vehicon


無銀の銀閣寺 / The Silverless Ginkakuji (Silver Pavilion)






新幹線N700系 / N700 Bullet Train


------------------------------------------
次回・・・　第3巻：埼玉県 (我の故郷よ！)
Coming up... Part 3: Saitama (my old home!)

[Shirokaze]

Loving all the pics! I've only spent a single day in Kyoto, and didn't venture more than a kilometer or 2 from the station, so those shots are especially awesome

[Darthprimus]

yeah, awesome pics man.

[GoktimusPrime]

埼玉県東松山市 / SAITAMA (Higashimatsuyama)

みんなたぶん高坂というのところが聞いたことないだと思いますが、昔々遥かの銀河でここに大学生でここに住 んでいたから、拙者にとっては懐かしいですよ！
Most of you have probably never heard of this place, but I used to live here as a student a long time ago in a galaxy far away, so it holds a lot of nostalgia for me!

高坂駅 / Takasaka Station


高坂駅の前にあるのバス停 / The bus bay outside Takasaka station


拙者はこの店から雑誌をよく買いました / I used to buy magazines from this shop


高坂駅の自転車駐車場 / Takasaka station bike parking


このカメラ屋で写真のフィルムを現像されちゃった！/ I used to get my film processed at this camera store!


安い食べ物：ガスト！/ Cheap eats: Gusto!


大東文化大学 / Daito Bunka University


この広場は平日の昼間にバンドの演奏が聞くことができますよ。/On weekday afternoons you can listen to bands performing here.






友達の伝統的な和式の家 / A friend's traditional Japanese home


あったかい炬燵に座って / sitting at a warm Kotatsu


すばらしい家庭料理！ / incredible home-cooked meal!


他の子供たちを遊んで / playing with other kids




茶道 / Tea Ceremony








雛人形 / Hina-ningyo dolls


床の間 / The Tokonoma


拙者が住んでいたアパート / my old flat







----------------------------------------

次回：　東京！
Next: TOKYO!

[Firestorm]

SENPAAIIIIIII...... you're really making me miss Japan

awesome pics by the way , is that ninja resturant one of those places where the staff all dress like ninja and do "ninja magic" for you while you eat?

you went to the Toei Movie Village, jealous

your pictures are giving me ideas of places to go for my next trip

[GoktimusPrime]

ありがとうさ

SENPAAIIIIIII...... you're really making me miss Japan

Dude, I've been missing Japan for the last 15 years!! So much has changed since the time I was living there. Stuff like...
+ Security everywhere is way more tight/paranoid; like the fingerprint scans at the airport and CCTV in public places... even signs saying that surveillance is there to counter terrorism and crime etc.! So this is what post Sept 11 Japan is like...
+ People aren't smoking as much in public places. In the old days No Smoking signs were purely decorative, now people actually obey them!
+ So many "portable hikikomori" - especially on trains where lots of people are just insulated in their own tiny worlds of their mobile phones. No eye contact or anything! The Japanese have always been recluse, but I think mobile phones kinda make it worse because it means they have an "excuse" not to interact with people sitting next to them (too busy interacting with people online!). Makes them bigger targets for attack too... just as well Japan has such low crime (could you imagine people being so damn inattentive to their surroundings in Australia or countries with much higher rates of assault/robbery?!?).
+ A lot more train stations have lifts now! When I was there last most stations only had stairs. Having lifts makes travelling so much easier when you're pushing a baby stroller around. However since lifts have only been a relatively recent addition to most stations, they can be placed in really inconvenient locations (i.e. the bum-end of stations where you have to circumnavigate half the area just of freakin' get there! Half the time we just went "Ah bugger it" and carried baby & stroller up and down flights of stairs!). But still, a significant improvement over last time where stations with lifts was more of a rarity.

At the Osaka meet when we found some Beast Wars toys at collectable stores like Hero Gangu, I told Odie that when I was living in Japan these toys were current... now that he's living there it's DOTM and TF Prime! (and OTCA^Austran was only about a year old and had less than 50 members!) Sign of the times.

Oh, and this is what I looked like when I was there last (black shirt):

...yeah, before I got all fat and stuff. <sigh>

is that ninja resturant one of those places where the staff all dress like ninja and do "ninja magic" for you while you eat?

I believe so. We didn't actually go inside any of them.

you went to the Toei Movie Village, jealous

Yeah, unfortunately it started raining while we were there, so we had to leave prematurely and didn't see everything (downside of touring with a baby). But I enjoyed what we did see though. They had this little anime museum which is only about the history of Toei anime No images of Transformers, but they had a historical timeline of Toei anime which mentioned the Japanese G1 TF series (Headmasters et al.). Our camera battery died by this stage, but I took photos with my phone... just gotta find the USB cable for my phone.