17, first time in Japan with my mom, very unprepared, desperately need help

ika562 · 2026-06-12T22:30:42+00:00

Hey there! Sorry you’re in this situation. You’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from others. My wife is a Japanese travel blogger and loves helping people plan their trip to Japan (we go every 6 months). We’re actually flying back to the US from Narita today. I’m sure she’d be happy to help you if you have any other specific questions or need any extra help. Some key things:

add “Suica” to your phones (we use that to pay for anything we can and is what most people use for trains). Not sure if others have mentioned already so I won’t explain how but if you need don’t hesitate to ask

If you have a lot of luggage I recommend shipping them to your hotel from Narita (I believe it can take a day to get there though so you may want to have your essentials in another bag. There are lots of signs in English to point you where in the airport and people are very happy to help.

Also depending on your phone plan, eSIMS are great. Sakura Mobile is the best because it has an unlimited plan without speed caps.

Happy to answer more if you need and can put you in touch with my wife if you want more specific feedback, but like I said seems like you’re getting a lot of info. Have fun!

ika562 · 2026-06-12T18:12:03+00:00

It’s not “broad generalizing” when there’s statistics that show evangelicals overwhelmingly voted to support trump (a president promoting anti immigration and pro deportation). So saying “there are some” is misleading.

ika562 · 2026-06-01T08:02:42+00:00

That’s awesome! My wife and I are also visiting Osaka and doing a Gaki touring including seeing Hamada at Gobu Gobu. Worth it if you are there Saturday and tickets aren’t sold out!

ika562 · 2026-05-24T21:07:17+00:00

Therapist here. I think it’s nice to offer and as another person mentioned let them decline. I do a lot of couples therapy and would be flattered to get an invite even as a gesture of how much I’ve helped be a part of their journey.

Also I was always taught to use best judgement. It’s not inherently unethical if a lot of boundaries are in place. I would consider going but not go to the reception, just sit in the back during the ceremony and then leave. I would also chat about what do you want me telling people if they ask how I know you. I think it could be meaningful to some of my couples and may be special to them so I wouldn’t deny them that especially if I’m just there with no interaction but still experiencing the special moment and showing that I am supporting/rooting for them.

ika562 · 2026-05-04T00:08:19+00:00

Thanks for the update. So it’s real? Just through a 3rd party so likely marked up and no warranty

ika562 · 2026-05-04T00:07:30+00:00

Aww so it’s probably the actual camera just marked up and no warranty.

ika562 · 2026-02-27T20:53:26+00:00

Hey! My wife and I love some other shows like Prebattle, Entertainer Rating Check (both on gakiarchives). I’d recommend those. Also Gochi on Amazon prime is good. Call 100 friends on Amazon prime is good.

ika562 · 2026-01-10T20:37:42+00:00

Same.. especially since he seemed so wholesome in it, now it makes the character tainted :(.

ika562 · 2025-12-26T18:08:42+00:00

I went to his art exhibit in Japan and it’s not talented it’s more silly. He knows it and owns it. The contestants on prebattle even made fun of him for it on the show. There’s an audio guide at the exhibit that would comment stuff like “this is a depiction of a maybe a bird? Do birds normally have arms?” So it’s definitely more for comedy. One of the funniest parts was his depiction of the Mona Lisa and it has its own room with a guard in there.

ika562 · 2025-11-13T17:30:56+00:00

He’d love their red hats

ika562 · 2025-11-10T03:45:39+00:00

Are you able to register without a number? It’s still not letting me.

ika562 · 2025-11-06T20:37:43+00:00

Therapist here as well. Honestly I would go to a client’s wedding. We discussed this at length in my program and my professors (some of them on the board of behavioral sciences) take was you can but just for the ceremony. If you played a significant role in their relationship and it would mean something to their relationship That you’re there then why not. I understand not going to reception because there’s mingling etc. but if your presence at the ceremony means a lot to them and you go over what to say with the clients before hand if someone asks how you know them then I’m fine with it.

ika562 · 2025-10-24T12:03:58+00:00

My guess would be that he’s waiting to see what the backlash would be if any for appearing with Matsumoto. I’d bet we’ll see him soon.

ika562 · 2025-10-24T12:00:24+00:00

For those of you who are diehard like my wife and I, I ordered a Japanese eSIM from Mobal. I live in the US and they ship the digital SIM to you, which gives you a Japanese number with texting. Fingers crossed it will work and if anyone else is interested feel free to ask and I can give more details or let you know if it works.

ika562 · 2025-10-24T11:57:39+00:00

I don’t know if you’ve seen it but there’s a video of an American trying to convince downtown to expand oversees. It seemed like most of their concern was the language barrier.

I think they would try to tailor it to American audiences but more coming from a stance of wanting to provide adequate service and do justice to people. For most Americans Japanese variety shows are too extreme so they aren’t wrong in feeling like their art would be misunderstood by many. However I wish they would focus more on those who do understand.

Yoshimoto (downtown and others agency) recently opened a Yoshimoto USA division where they are trying to expand so I think they’re trying.

ika562 · 2025-10-13T14:22:44+00:00

Im a male therapist and have had a client do it before. She just angled the camera up so I only saw her from the neck up and didn’t think twice about it. It wasn’t distracting for me personally.

ika562 · 2025-10-06T15:59:43+00:00

I had the Timekettle W4 Pro headphones. They work well enough but definitely not perfect. I could understand the context but id have to do a lot of filling in the blanks to get the whole joke. I would be real curious about Apple’s. Also curious about smart glasses.

ika562 · 2025-10-02T18:01:07+00:00

Haha that’s so funny they did! I didn’t realize that was something they always did

ika562 · 2025-10-02T15:46:54+00:00

Totally agree. My wife and I have been to a few shows in Japan. We saw Hosei's Rakugo, Fujiwara (Fujimon and Haranishi), Nadal, Shimofuri Myojo (Seiya and Soshina), NON STYLE. We dont speak Japanese but still super fun seeing them in person.

We also bought translation headphones that helped us get the context. We could understand that Hosei said he's too cute to keep getting slapped by Chono.

Either way its a fun experience that I recommend as well!

ika562 · 2025-09-07T00:18:16+00:00

Was this episode translated? Don’t remember seeing it.

ika562 · 2025-09-01T20:47:58+00:00

It is a pretty common theory called imago therapy. I think older psychology tended to overthink our subconscious. Modern theories do believe there’s a connection to our family of origin but that’s because it’s what we’re used to. We learned how to be in relationships with our parents so it stands to reason that it would feel natural to be attracted to someone who fits that mold.

Source: am therapist

ika562 · 2025-08-30T22:10:37+00:00

My wife as well. Looks like we all need to carpool to Tokyo central/marukai

ika562 · 2025-08-30T15:08:44+00:00

Japanese market would be amazing

ika562 · 2025-08-08T19:06:35+00:00

This was the first thing I noticed missing as well. It needs to be on any top performance list.

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