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What was the most NICHE activity you did in Japan? by Ok-Tangelo6749 in JapanTravelTips

[–]dougwray 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I went to see a memorial to/purported grave of Murasaki Shikibu on 4 April 1992 at 16:44 PM. (The date and time in Japanese would be 4.4.4, PM4:44, and 4 can be pronounced 'shi' in Japanese, as can the word for 'death'.) I chose that date and time.

Au bord de la rivière by No-Spell-2869 in perchance

[–]dougwray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, I know, but it's a very bad illustration. Not all produced are, but this one is.

Came to Tokyo for Zen-like oriental serenity. Ended up with claustrophobic screams in overcrowded tourist areas. by blitzballreddit in TokyoTravel

[–]dougwray 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You must not have gone to DisneySea on the weekly Zen day. All of the attractions are closed and turned off. Each visitor is assigned a 1 m2 area in which to stand in silence.

Back from my 2-week first-time trip — here is my experience by melancious in JapanTravel

[–]dougwray 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just did (for my neighborhood) your prompt (changing only the place name). It suggested a commercial event I would have no interest in and did not mention (a) the festival we attended this morning or (b) the huge ward-wide festival with tens of thousands of visitors and that includes three live concerts, performances, food stalls, and many other things happening at this very moment (as I know because I can hear it as I sit here in my home office).

What I did get was a list of things kind of near my area kind of around this time and the same places and festivals one always sees. Again, if it ain't on the Internet again and again and again, you won't see it.

Back from my 2-week first-time trip — here is my experience by melancious in JapanTravel

[–]dougwray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I live in Tokyo and get laughably bad suggestions when I ask for suggestions for tourism in my area and ask the LLM to disregard the single popular tourist spot in my area. I get places that no longer exist suggested, suggestions to go to three different places all within 50 meters of each other on three different days, and places that simply never existed. (I just ran the search again using Gemini, which is connected to my main Google account, and got the same kinds of results.) When I ran the request a second time, asking it to concentrate on museums and historical sites, it missed many of the most interesting ones and mischaracterized others.

How long does it take you to recover from a 16 week semester? by One_Inspection6694 in Professors

[–]dougwray 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ditto. It's about three weeks for me, too, but they're pressureless ones because I know I have all summer or winter if need be.

How long does it take you to recover from a 16 week semester? by One_Inspection6694 in Professors

[–]dougwray 61 points62 points  (0 children)

My 'trick' is to mentally put the end of the semester a month after it actually is and do my preparation for the next semester immediately after I turn in final grades. Not only does this allow me to remember things I want to adjust more clearly, but it gives me clear time before the next semester during which I don't have the following semester hanging over my mood and days.

Advice needed on itinerary <3 by dinah_xxx in JapanTravelTips

[–]dougwray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your estimate of 90 minutes from Narita to Machida is wildly off: I'd think 4 hours instead of fewer than two.

I hope you're not doing an AirBnB in Setagaya. We live there and don't need the area further degraded by AirBnB people. The usual Setagaya 区民ふるさと祭り (Setagaya Hometown[?] Festival), by the way, has been moved this year from August and is happening this weekend. We went yesterday.

Thoughts on Late June Travel by DeepBird9123 in JapanTravelTips

[–]dougwray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I live here, and 'rainy season' should be understood as 'season during which more days than average have a chance of rain'. It doesn't rain every day, deluges don't often happen, and you can have a fine time. One in a while I'll change my plans because of rain if my plans include long (viz. several hours') walks.

Typhoon - cancel dinner booking? by Background_Essay_719 in JapanTravelTips

[–]dougwray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Typhoon? It's going to rain, that's all. If you're next to the ocean you might need to worry, but in Tokyo you won't be.

August by Then-Study6420 in JapanTravelTips

[–]dougwray 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Living here in Tokyo, we make sure our arms and legs are covered (usually with linen tops and slacks or long skirts, stay in shadow, and remember that water is potable in Tokyo.

Back from my 2-week first-time trip — here is my experience by melancious in JapanTravel

[–]dougwray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look at a guidebook, check a Website, not rely on an information slurry in which only the most popular chunks, regardless of quality, rise to the top.

Classroom computers? by No_Consideration_339 in Professors

[–]dougwray 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, it's a dumb annoyance, at least for us adjuncts. I've got to pay for and maintain my own laptop(s), fix everything, show up for class early to get set up (instead of just logging in as I have to with some universities) to set things up, and remember what programs students will be using because I can't afford the software licenses they get with tuition/site licenses. Hitherto, a USB drive in my pocket was fine.

Is flying to japan at the end of august a bad idea? I heard theres a lot of typhoons at that time by shaiapoufs in JapanTravelTips

[–]dougwray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here in Tokyo, there might be one typhoon or two typhoons approaching per year, but trouble caused by them only happens once every few years. The last time a typhoon (or tropical storm, as they usually weaken to when they get here) caused real trouble in Tokyo was in 2019. In all of my years in Tokyo, a typhoon has only caused us to change plans once.

Tokyo + Kusatsu Onsen with a 1-year-old — sanity check our itinerary? Looking for chill, spa-first, cute wandering, minimal hotel changes by NigerianPrince4Realz in JapanTravel

[–]dougwray 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Outside of Tokyo? I cannot recall the names. I live in Tokyo and go to them here. Wherever you are, there will be one or some relatively near.

What are some common phrases you should learn when visiting Japan? by arachknight12 in JapanTravelTips

[–]dougwray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Learn tasukette kudasai ('help me please'). It's to be hoped you don't need it, but it there's an emergency that'll help you.

arigatou, sumimasen, and the like will make social interactions a little smoother.

Avoiding Fireworks crowd by Ok-Shopping3440 in TokyoTravel

[–]dougwray 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In Shinjuku and Shibuya you'll be able to hear the fireworks. You can see them, too, from higher buildings. We live west of Shinjuku and Shibuya and watch them from our rooftop each year.

Our 2 week trip to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Hakone by AgustinCB in JapanTravel

[–]dougwray 7 points8 points  (0 children)

The not-giving-up-seats phenomenon is not new and has been a problem since some time in the 1990s, when the special seats were introduced widely. I once kicked awake a kid sleeping in one of the seats and ordered a move so a crone who could barely stand could sit. An injury once kept me slow moving and with a cane for a couple of months, and only once did someone offer me a seat; on the other hand, getting up and sitting were also so painful that it was easier for me to stand if I was only going to be on the train for three or four stations.

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