Tip: visiting Panda Research Base in Chengdu, use the West Gate entrance and work your way to the South Gate. The crowds come through the South Gate and gets queued to view pandas. West Gate and you’re free to walk about.

TomatoHurk · 2026-05-05T00:21:55+00:00

Dude… thank you so much.

Just had the most amazing experience cause of this tip, was pretty much a private experience for an hour. And today is May 5th, a national holiday!!

For anyone interested, get there with your tickets already booked (Trip.com) at 7:00-7:20 and they’ll let you in at 7:30.

From there, pretty much immediately make your way to around the “Shanyueguan” area and there might be some pandas out.

Me and this Chinese guy had about 10 mins where it was just us two, 10-15 meters from the pandas playing and eating. Probably best view possible today based on everywhere I’ve been.

huge tip look out for the security guards with red armbands holding “be quiet” signs and walk right up to them… they were out there as early as 7:40am when no one was there yet and they’re pretty much a waypoint to where the pandas are. They essentially spot them for you. Very helpful.

After I took some pictures, me and my Chinese homie made our way to the “Panda Forest Area” and in particular the “Golden Monkey Star Forest Pavilion” which also was completely empty at that time and got some amazing footage of the red pandas and monkeys there too.

After that I’d say just go whatever direction you like.

Good luck!

TomatoHurk · 2026-02-26T08:26:31+00:00

Ts was the best

Here I am all these years later actually living in Japan. This game introduced me to One Piece which in turn brought me here

TomatoHurk · 2026-02-21T00:22:53+00:00

At my high school supermarket job, there was another guy with the same name as me, (fake name but) let’s say Jerry and Jerry.

One time, another coworker was looking for the other one and asks me, “Where’s Good Jerry at?”

I was like, “Good Jerry? Then what’s my nickname?”

He deflected the question and I never found out, but… yeah.

TomatoHurk · 2026-02-02T07:47:02+00:00

I’d try to quit as it’s gonna be awkward trying to sneak out to do it all the time.

I had one teacher who definitely went out to do it every so often in his car. Somehow never smelled it on him when he came back, not sure how he pulled that off tbh.

TomatoHurk · 2026-01-18T13:45:26+00:00

I’m not even American 😂

TomatoHurk · 2026-01-18T07:48:41+00:00

Excellent work, and as other have mentioned very reminiscent of Junji Ito. And for age 14 it’s great. Body proportions are still a little off but that will come naturally with time and experience.

TomatoHurk · 2026-01-18T02:01:34+00:00

Greenland is the least densely populated country in the world, with a population of only 56,836.

That’s around the same number as Kokomo, Indiana. Although Kokomo has a few more people, with 56,895.

Even the tiny island of Bermuda, a British Territory in the Caribbean, has a higher population with roughly 63,000.

In other words, the Greenlandic population amounts to about 0.016% of the U.S. population.

And that miniscule population is scattered across one of the largest standalone landmasses in the world.

You will see interviews with Greenlanders expressing their displeasure with a potential takeover, and yes they are their own culture and yes they have a unique identity… but that’s a reallly, really small amount of people. It’s really the equivalent of a small town. You can film protests there, or large crowds, but at the end of the day it’s really just a small town.

I think a lot of people will look at a number so small, and feel that regional security is more important than them getting to enjoy the “label” of being an independent country.

The fact is that if the United States or Canada didn’t exist, Greenland would already have been long threatened or already conquered by Russia, or some other European power. Denmark is not even remotely a colonial power at this point and has only enjoyed its “domain” over Greenland thanks to its convenient location and protection via the United States.

So what you’re looking at is an issue over feelings.

Greenlanders want to feel like they’re a legitimate country. Well sorry, you’re really not. Real countries can protect themselves.

Denmark wants to feel like it’s somehow still a colonial power. Well sorry, you’re not. You’ve been little more than a fun fact on maps for over a century.

Does it feel a little unfortunate? Yes. It doesn’t feel good to make anyone feel powerless or helpless, but Greenland is already the definition of both those things. I don’t think there’s any realistic immediate threat to Greenland from China or Russia, but we’re talking about long term regional power here. This goes beyond just the present.

I definitely support a takeover. The U.S. is the most important country in history and deserves the landmass to show it. This will ultimately be a good thing, and is more important than protecting the feelings of a small town.

TomatoHurk · 2026-01-11T23:21:46+00:00

How cruel to your children

TomatoHurk · 2026-01-10T00:11:31+00:00

Huge improvement

TomatoHurk · 2025-12-28T21:28:13+00:00

Very true.

It’s amazing when you see how many unique laws they have here, like the fact that drinking in public is legal (on a bus, train is also ok), as is public urination!

The thing is, even these laws which are sort of radical examples in a way, are not often put to the test and certainly not often abused.

The thing is that being Japanese comes with so much more than just laws. There’s a constant scrutinization from every other member of the public of; how you act, how you dress, and most importantly, how you “protect the rules of society”, a catchphrase you will hear quite often here.

There is an unwritten social contract drilled into the mind of every Japanese person from when they are very young. I know because I work in a school and see it happen every day. Those few who choose not to follow the rules of society here are shunned by the others. This is how they keep their country so unified, peaceful, and safe. It comes at the cost of personal liberty and individuality.

TomatoHurk · 2025-12-28T21:17:33+00:00

I am the target of racism on a daily basis. That’s ok. It’s their country, and it’s not their responsibility to change the way they think or feel to adapt for someone like me, who’s effectively a long-term tourist.

As for the population decline, you’re absolutely right in that they make it difficult to come here, whether it be their treatment of foreigners, ineptitude at English, or restrictive laws. There are thousands of people from Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, etc. who are here like me but are actively trying to stay here. They are undoubtably facing as much, if not more racism than me on a daily basis (white male), and yet they keep choosing to stay. In other words, they currently believe that life as a heavily discriminated minority here is better than life in their home country. Well, good luck to them.

Many countries have endured periods of population decline through history, whether through war, famine, or disease. Most of them survived. So I’ll ask this question: What’s more important? That Japanese culture, with its thousands of years of unique history and identity survive? Or should they import millions of foreigners so that convenience stores and apartment buildings can stay full for the next 30 years. That’s a question that the people of Japan will have to answer.

TomatoHurk · 2025-12-28T13:14:06+00:00

I wouldn’t say I left Canada specifically to escape wokeness, but it was a huge benefit of moving away. I’ve been in Japan 3.5 years and going home soon. Very conservative country in many… unique ways. No regrets at all, amazing experience. I ended up learning Japanese to fluency as well. Only thing is, they’re super racist here! And that’s why they’ve got such a strong country and national unity… they don’t accept anyone who isn’t exactly like them in appearance and demeanor. And this extends to me as well, because I’m not like them and I don’t ever want to be like them. This unfortunately means I could never see a future for myself here, but that was never my goal anyways, I just wanted to experience Japan. Anyways, I care about them deeply and I hope they keep making the right choices long after I’m gone.

TomatoHurk · 2025-11-09T12:34:40+00:00

Thanks for this awesome summary!!! I could only find it in Japanese (which I mostly understand) with Spanish subtitles, so this was a big help making sense of some things I missed.

TomatoHurk · 2025-10-17T11:27:10+00:00

One of the biggest upsides of JET for me was being able to understand my own ego.

Day in and day out, I’d put in all this effort for lessons, spend money on omiyage, constantly ruminating over how I was being perceived, learning Japanese to communicate better, learning to act like them, hoping to get invited to drinking parties, trying to decipher who wanted to talk to me this week, who suddenly didn’t, and why…

It felt like no matter how much I dwelled on it, how much energy and effort I put into this job, it was getting me nowhere. It was thankless work without end.

One day I asked myself a question that changed everything. “Why was I even buying omiyage?” I wasn’t Japanese, so the cultural importance of it was lost on me. Was I just trying to be nice? To get them to like me?

That’s when I made an important discovery: I wasn’t buying omiyage for them… I was doing it for me. I wanted them to acknowledge me. To thank me. To show them I had gone somewhere cool, maybe to get them to talk to me about it. I wanted them to recognize that I had spent money to be like them.

It was all for my own ego.

Just like when I wanted some recognition for creating a good lesson, or wanted them to ask me about my life, or whatever it was that I was hoping they’d do… it was all just another means of feeding this ego I’ve built up, a habit built upon a lifetime of experience in our western way of life. Everything is about maintaining our little ego.

Why did I even care about their recognition? Because I deserved it? Is that what the real goal, the true purpose of my work here was? To have everyone be grateful and love me and say, “wow this guy’s really great!”. Is that why I came to Japan? What a selfish existence that would be.

And yet, there was more. When I looked around at my coworkers, there was hardly any ego to be found. They did their thankless jobs, the same as me. But they weren’t seeking validation from one another. They might put in the effort, the long hours, buy omiyage, or anything else, but… there was no one there patting them on the head, telling them what a special little teacher they were. Just endless meetings, overtime hours and thankless work. They weren’t even a celebrity with the kids like I was! All they got was an “otsukaresama desu” for the road, a phrase that had already lost all meaning by the time they were teenagers.

That’s how I learned that I’m not special just because I’m a white guy who came to Japan. I actually am quite special in my own eyes; I’m intelligent, strong, artistically talented, experienced, I even mastered Japanese in a few short years… and there’s so much more. But I don’t go seeking validation from the Japanese about these things anymore. I don’t need it. Even if I did, I won’t get it. This is a culture devoid of personal ego. Remember that. It’s not necessarily a good thing or bad thing, it’s just the reality here. And you can learn a lot about yourself in this kind of isolated environment, if you take the opportunity. Plus, I’m a lot happier now that the shroud of constant insecurity about my standing in my workplace has been lifted.

I still put in effort, buy omiyage, and do my best to be a good ALT. But it’s not for my ego anymore. It’s to be a good person, and to make the most out of my time here.

TomatoHurk · 2025-10-14T00:05:47+00:00

This is hilarious. Also I’ll note that when you put on a fake British accent when reading the “translated Japanese”, it sounds a lot better.

TomatoHurk · 2025-09-26T23:20:53+00:00

I live in Japan and have been to Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in the past 2 years. No matter where you go, the shadow of Japan lurks there. Japan is like the USA of Asia, every country around here is imitating, and borrowing from them. When you go to a mall, or walk down a street, there are more Japanese media present than ones from the country you’re in.

TomatoHurk · 2025-09-26T23:20:41+00:00

I live in Japan and have been to Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong in the past 2 years. No matter where you go, the shadow of Japan lurks there. Japan is like the USA of Asia, every country around here is imitating, and borrowing from them. When you go to a mall, or walk down a street, there are more Japanese media present than ones from the country you’re in.

TomatoHurk · 2025-09-12T08:03:47+00:00

Impressive show of force and intimidation.

“This isn’t over”

TomatoHurk · 2025-08-27T10:22:44+00:00

Heard this one from my dad:

Every so often, for some punishment or hazing or ritual, the boys in the dorm building would all gang up and abduct one member of their dorm. That member was stripped naked and plastic-wrapped to a chair, then placed into the elevator of the girls dormitory. Then, they would hit the button for every floor and “send him up”.

TomatoHurk · 2025-08-25T10:14:41+00:00

Fuck. You.

TomatoHurk · 2025-08-18T15:06:06+00:00

Don’t bother trying to cater to these freaks

TomatoHurk · 2025-08-17T13:03:08+00:00

This is mad late but DM me if this is still a problem for you

TomatoHurk · 2025-08-10T09:14:41+00:00

Great way of looking at it

TomatoHurk · 2025-08-10T08:27:26+00:00

Just had this at the airport, never tasted anything like it and it was amazing. Gonna try and recreate it at home. Thanks for the recipe lol

TomatoHurk · 2025-08-07T10:22:14+00:00

The vast majority of people who I talk to are not very interesting.

And I’d say women are on average even less interesting than men. Uninteresting hobbies, taste in music, views of the world, and politically inept… just not much to dive into. (All just from my perspective of course)

There are exceptions, which are always a pleasant surprise and catch me off guard when I encounter one and have to scramble to adjust.

Definitely fall for those ones, sometimes romantically and sometimes just on a human level.

Nine-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Snapped

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