Things that are getting on my nerves recently...

[chan]

Things that are getting on my nerves recently...


1. Pedestrian crossings that nearly all drivers ignore. The ones without lights or "stop" written on the road. Apparently drivers are supposed to slow down. They don't.

2. The cheesy voices used in the movie trailer voiceovers in DVDs. The way they use words like "heartful" as an adjective in Japanese.

3. The low quality of Japanese subtitles that fail to convey large swathes of meaning throughout a movie, stripping dialogue of nuance and subtlety.

4. The fact that it's almost impossible to form friendships, as a western guy, with Japanese men. Even the ones that you think you are pretty close to have a deeply hidden distrust of you.

5. Piped music in parks.

6. Fake wood surfaces (floors and ceilings) in "mansions"

7. The fact that my girlfriend hasn't got a clue how exhausting it is speaking Japanese all the time.

8. The fact that everyone has preconceptions of me before we even talk.

9. The fact that I sound childish in Japanese.

10. Tomorrow is Monday and I'm going to see a million dead faces on the train, stuck in their fixed ways of thinking and talking.

Some of these aren't unique to Japan, but fuck it, may as well blame Japan for them as well...

[Tsuru]

Hey, you know where the door is....

[amdg]

[GomiGirl]

Mate - sounds like you need a holiday...

[amdg]

Chill out and have a beer - these guys will open it for you....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ4EOtdZANQ

[FG Lurker]

1. Pedestrian crossings that nearly all drivers ignore. The ones without lights or "stop" written on the road. Apparently drivers are supposed to slow down. They don't.

Yep, I ignore most of em too.

3. The low quality of Japanese subtitles that fail to convey large swathes of meaning throughout a movie, stripping dialogue of nuance and subtlety.

People can only read a certain amount in a given period of time. I used to hate the subtitles as well, but there is little that can be done about it. Things have to be compressed so that viewers can read them at a glance! while watching whatever is happening on the screen. If they wanted to read and not watch the action I suppose they would have bought the book instead. ]7. The fact that my girlfriend hasn't got a clue how exhausting it is speaking Japanese all the time.[/quote]
Can always date someone from your home country or some other non-Japanese. What, they won't talk to you? Or you aren't interested in them? Not sure why you're bitching then...

9. The fact that I sound childish in Japanese.

You sound childish in English too.


Don't let the door smack ya in the ass on the way out!

[chan]

amdg : thanks. like the look of that pill. but this whiskey and soda is doing for now.

gomigirl : yeah, that's a fact. by the way, beautiful website - very smooth.

tsuru : yeah, always an option. one I took before after 5 years here. but i love it here enough to give it a second chance - a year in to round two and just letting off some steam.

FG Lurker : thanks, I was hoping for that kind of a response. sometimes you need someone to give you a good kick. RE why don't I date native speakers? i hardly ever meet native speaker women or bilingual japanese women --- there just aren't that many around. RE subtitles : I understand the basic concept that people here faster than they read. I'm talking about blatant mistranslations of individual words. RE pedestrian crossings : please slow down when you approach them.

[GuyJean]

1. Pedestrian crossings that nearly all drivers ignore. The ones without lights or "stop" written on the road. Apparently drivers are supposed to slow down. They don't.

Car crashes into group of nursery school children, killing 2 and injuring 14 others
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060925p2a00m0na014000c.html

.. At about 9:55 a.m., a white van rammed into a line of 33 children and five teachers from a local nursery school at an intersection along a municipal road in the Totsuka-Higashi district of Kawaguchi, local police said..

GJ

[kamome]

I'm surprised at the negative reaction of some of the old-timers here. FG started as a place to rant about being a fucked gaijin in Japan. Chan is doing exactly what we all did (or still do).

Here are some old threads where never-heard-from-again FG sukebekuro felt the need to rant about cultural differences:

Cleanliness next to buddha-ness

wacky terebi

[AssKissinger]

Chan are you male or female?

[canman]

Kamome, the other old timers on the board have heard these things so many times that it gets a little grating. I know for myself when I read Chan's post I agreed with him about all the little or not so little stupid things, but was soon thinking a. what took you so long to dislike these things and b. so what T.I.J. I know we should be a little more sympathetic, but it's not like we don't experience these things everyday, so it does seem a bit like whinging. My perspective anyway.

[Greji]

Chan are you male or female?

All that pressure, maybe a switch hitter.

Well, the five things that constantly get on my nerves in Japan are:

a. My wife
b. My girlfriend
c. My kids
d. Overpriced drinks
e. All of the above

[Buraku]

you remembered the pills

but ya forgot the booze

[GomiGirl]

A site just for these type of complaints

[blackcat]

" FG started as a place to rant about being a fucked gaijin in Japan."

wow! kamome You've changed your tune.

[kamome]

" FG started as a place to rant about being a fucked gaijin in Japan."

wow! kamome You've changed your tune.

Nope. Same old tune. Your rants are incessant, racist generalizations about the "Japs" that go far beyond what I'm talking about.

[cstaylor]

Nope. Same old tune. Your rants are incessant, racist generalizations about the "Japs" that go far beyond what I'm talking about.

I second that. Teaching English to Japanese brats must be a real soul grinder for blackcat.

[jingai]

I second that. Teaching English to Japanese brats must be a real soul grinder for blackcat.

Probably won't even be recognizable when his time in Japan is done. Like Arctor from "A Scanner Darkly," just a shell of what he used to be. ; )

[Mulboyne]

I think a forum called "Fucked Gaijin" can include a wide audience without trying to judge how early or late in the cycle a member might be.

[Jack]

Let Chan rant. But the things he/she listed are trivial at best. Like Gomigirl said, much as I dislike her, Chan-san you need "bakeshon".