u/FitProVR

That's about it. We happened to park next to eachother at the same time. We had the exact make and model, and he said "nice car". We laughed and talked about how much we liked driving our cars and how we have no intention of selling them. Then we walked away.

I am an American, native english speaker, and I speak conversational Chinese. Like B1 Level Chinese. I feel like because Japanese is soooooo different than English (SVO, etc), everytime I learn something new in Japanese, it makes me more confused. In Chinese, it's super easy. SVO (with a few exceptions), and it's super easy to conjugate with particles. Reading, obviously, is a different beast. But speaking Chinese is actually weirdly easy.

I dunno man, maybe I'm just frustrated but I've been at this for two years and understand a lot of japanese, but no matter what I say, I'm wrong. There's so many ways to say the same thing (I know, english is the same if now harder), but man. I'm so frustrated. Like N5 is easy, N4 is meh, I feel like no matter how much I learn n4, it's endless and I'll never progress. I can't find people to practice with online to save my life. I have a tutor, she's great but recently told me she feels like I'm not progressing. UGH.

I actually went to Japan recently and spoke with some taxi drivers in Japanese, but it was very basic and I had to nod my way through a few things, but overall we TALKED. I used my japanese. Also my first lesson with my tutor after my trip was great. I was surrounded with japanese and was GETTING it. It was making sense. I think the problem is that I don't use Japanese on a daily basis like I do with chinese, I'm not confident with it, and it's just pissing me off that it's not coming as easy as Chinese did. Yeah, tones are hard or whatever, but man by comparison, Mandarin is wildly easier. Ugh. This is probably just a vent post, but I feel like I'll probably be n4 forever.

I also hate that no matter how hard I study, I still fuck up Katakana. UGHHHHHH. I hate Katakana. I'll sound out a word over and over again and still not understand it. I dunno man. I'll keep grinding but I feel like it's useless. I wish I could be like those youtubers wh ocould dedicate 5 hours a day to japanese and progress super fast. I wish I liked Anime as much as others do. I'm running out of things I like about Japanese. The more I learn the more I wish I would have not started in the first place but I'm in this shit and pushing through.

Title

Today i went shopping for a used car. I went to a used dealership that i later learned had really REALLY bad reviews. I’ll cut the confusing part and save you the shitty interactions with the first few people:
Basically i wanted to text drive a 2013 jeep wrangler. It was used and on a weird display. They had posed it on a gravel “mountain” and covered in in ghillie net. While they were undressing it, i noticed there was a jump starter attached to the battery.

I asked the salesman about it and he said it has been sitting for more than two months, so they had to jump it. 🚩

Then i noticed all the bolts and undercarriage was rusted.🚩

It was also missing a bunch on aftermarket parts and a lot of stuff just didn’t look right.

He asked me if i wanted to test drive it and i said sure. Then he checked and told me it was on empty. 🚩

Then it died again and he had to jump it. Again. 🚩

At that point i told him i wasn’t interested and he got hostile. I told him something was obviously wrong with the battery or alternator if he had to jump it twice while i was here. It was close to E but not empty, i saw the gauge.

Eventually he got hostile and told me i didn’t know shit about cars and that he’d work with cars for 20 years and the only reason it needed to be jumped was because it sat so long. I ended up just leaving because i didn’t want to argue with a car salesman in the middle of bumfuck New Jersey.

The question that’s prodding though, was something probably wrong with the battery or alternator based on that info or could it really have been just sitting two long? The entire interaction was about 20 minutes, car was on and idle the whole time, except when it died that second time.

Don’t worry, I’m not buying this jeep, just curious. It smelled like mold and had dead bees and gum in the interior.

Edit: here’s the jeep and the link to the dealer website for any who are interested:

https://www.njcarndrive.com/2013-Jeep-Wrangler-Burlington-NJ-Trenton-Levittown-Willingboro-Burlington/used\_car/DFjdG4enotQ%3d

It’s going to be pretty rare that you find someone who just wants to talk to you in English and help you learn for free. I recommend when posting, mention your native language because you may find someone who is looking for a language exchange and you could help each other.

For example, right now I’m seeking a Japanese native to help me with my speaking practice, and would gladly go half and half with English.

I just feel like many of you would find more success if you offer your native language as an exchange.

Also visit r/language_exchange

My son named his pet bug (don’t ask) “Fredward” - this made me chuckle because a) it’s uncommon (you probably wouldn’t hear someone named this) and b)it’s the combination of two relatively common names that make it sound a bit silly.
He also named one of his bugs “Jimothy” - also funny.
Now we’re on a kick trying to come up with silly names like this.

He asked me if Chinese had anything like this and i don’t actually know because we live in America and I’m not familiar with this part of Chinese culture.

What names (if any) would make you chuckle if you heard or saw them in Chinese?

For context - I am a restaurant tipper. 10% for moderate service, 15% for good, 20% for outstanding. Nothing if they're complete assholes, non-existant, or rude. I don't tip at coffee shops or anything else. I'll also tip plumbers and electricians if they go above and beyond.

Now that you know I'm not a non-tipper, here's the situation that I did NOT tip at at the restaurant:

Local Thai restaurant, run by a husband and wife team. They work the front of house and kitchen, no employees, only them. Mostly take out but we eat in. The only interactions are ordering, water, food brought to the table, and obviously cleaning up after we leave. No check ins, no refills, nothing like that. I pay my bill at the counter. There's a spot for tip, but I X it out. Here's my reasoning:

-They are not "underpaid" waiters, they are literally the owners and operators and collect all profits.

-They don't provide some stellar customer service or anything, just bring food.

That's it. It felt weird to not tip, but the reality is that I didn't see the point. I get the argument for tipping waiters and such, but this didn't seem like the right place to tip. Thoughts? What would you have done? I address this to tippers because it's pretty obvious what a non-tipper would do.

Hi All, we (Me - 43, Wife - 42, two children 5 and 11) concluded our Japan trip last week and I wanted to give the usual post-mortem that I see on here. I wrote a lot, and I tried to keep to things I don't often read about on these types of subreddits, so in no real travel order I wanted to lay out the good, the bad, and the unexpected of our whole trip. I know I left stuff out but you also probably don't want to read an entire book of my trip.

Travel Dates - June 14th to June 25th. Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka

The Good -
Japan is super organized, and I loved every aspect of it. From standing on the side of the escalator to walking on the left side of the street, everything (in Tokyo, at least) was super efficient and clean. It made you want to participate in it to fit in. People made it seem like there was no garbage on the street, and for the most part there isn’t, but every now and again you’ll see some litter or graffiti. It pales in comparison to what I’m used to where people will purposefully throw trash into a sewer or just throw it on the ground in front of a garbage can.

The sushi in every little restaurant was better than any $300+ per plate sushi/sashimi dinners I have had in America. It was frustrating that I was paying $40-$60 for a meal that would cost me $200 in the US. I did not have a bad meal (including fast food) except for one restaurant in Kyoto that was super slow, the food was mid, and they messed up our order several times, bringing the wrong food and forgetting other foods and not bringing drinks. I don’t even remember the name of it, but it was a four story restaurant that was mostly ala cart skewered meats. Something starting with an M. I’ll update if I remember.

I really appreciate the fashion of Japanese people. The modesty is very nice. There’s not constantly boobs in your face and gross clothes hanging off of people by threads. It was just a bit nice to see people putting thought into outfits. We did the same, even though I know we get a foreigner pass. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these kinds of racier outfit choices, and right now I’m in hawaii where most people are just walking around in bikinis or board shorts, and it’s no problem, I’m no prude. I just appreciate the effort of the Japanese. Both men and women were dressed very nicely.

If you have kids, go to teamLabs. It’s worth it. We went to Borderless in Tokyo and Biovortex in Kyoto. Biovortex was better and had more kid friendly stuff. Borderless was a bit more for instagrammers. We enjoyed both but biovortex was better. 

We walked, on average, 20k steps per day, so be ready. My family and I are walkers, so we had no issues, no soreness. We all wore good shoes and stayed hydrated despite the weather only really being hot on two days. 

The subway system in Tokyo (and Osaka) was super user friendly and easy to navigate. I’m not someone who takes the subway in our own city because it stinks like piss and shit and people smoking K2 or literally shooting up or masturbating. Once you get your bearings,  google maps is a lifesaver, it’s super comfortable to use. We even go the experience of packing into the Tokyo Station rush hour car. My daughter (5) had a bit of a panic, but we shooshed her and nobody gave us a stank face or anything.

I bought Tiger Onisuka’s like a tourist. I love them. I like this type of shoe though so if you like flatter, less supported sneakers and the line isn’t too long, definitely buy them. I think I paid $85 for the Mexico 66’s. There wasn’t a line, weirdly, and I think it took me a total of 30 minutes to get them from start to finish. We went to the one in Skytree, and Skytree was awesome. 

The professionalism of the workers at every store was insane. They were all working hard and doing their jobs 100%. In my city, if you go to any fast food restaurant, store, shopping center, hell even the police, the first thing you will see is them on their phone and definitely with an airpod in. I didn’t see a single worker checking their phone, minus one cook in osaka at a food stand, but it never stopped him from making the takoyaki. Every single store in Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka, that I went to, everyone was welcoming and professional. Amazing.

The Bad - 

Tourists are annoying. I say this as an American Tourist, but the Europeans were loud and rude, if there was a gaggle of whites blocking the street or messing up the efficiency of the subway, it was Europeans. The Chinese tourists were very disrespectful at the Temples (not all, but a lot, hanging on trees and hitting stuff, touching things they weren’t supposed to). I met a few Americans along the way, most were quiet and respectful except for one family that was wildly obnoxious, mom was Australian, Dad was American, kids were super spoiled and annoying and asking rude questions and doing stupid imitations of the tour guide and it was driving me nuts.

The Japanese are not overly friendly, but not rude. They mostly just mind their own business and ignore you, which I greatly appreciate. This compared to my city where people, I’m pretty sure, go out of their way to be annoying and obnoxious, especially on public transit, which was a stark contrast. I am dreading returning to my home city (still traveling atm).

Many japanese (dads mostly) parents kind of just let their kids run wild and be assholes. Not all of them, but more than a handful of times I would be at a coffee shop waiting for my order or something and there would be a kid or two screaming or just running feral with no correction from the parents. It was interesting based on how many of the adults acted, must be some sort of permissive parenting but it was not expected.

Kyoto was not as interesting as I had hoped. My friend told me it was her favorite place in Japan, and we managed to get to all the touristy spots prior to the big crowds of people. The only place we went that was crowded were the shopping streets and one temple in Asakusa (I know this is not in Kyoto, just saying). Waking up early is such a cheat-code. Even prior to 9am was plenty early. I think Kyoto just felt very touristy and there were so many foreigners, me included. I felt kind of bad for the locals whereas in Tokyo, I felt like there weren’t many tourists where I stayed in Ueno, probably due to the difference in population density.

Disney sea was crowded. It took about an hour to get through the security lines. Once we got in, it opened up a bit, but man, that was rough getting in. Most of the best rides were 120+ minutes wait tops, and this was on a rainy day. Luckily my older kid doesn’t like scary or thrill rides, and a majority of the littler kid rides were about 20 minutes max. So my kids had a great time. Food and prices were good. Souvenirs were weirdly limited (by comparison to Land or World).

The bamboo park was definitely skippable. I expected more, instead it was just a small stretch of bamboo, and a bunch of tourists grabbing and pulling at it. And man, Idk, the rickshaws make me super uncomfortable. I know their tour guides (with amazing quads, btw), but like, something about seeing a human pulling around tourists on a cart was uncomfortable feeling. The monkey park was fun though. The hike was great, especially when carrying a 5 year old on your shoulders. Great leg workout.

The Unexpected -

Holy shit the sun comes up early. We had no clue. Around 3am I started seeing hints of the sun. By 5am it was in the sky bright as day. This shocked the hell out of us and definitely utilized the black out curtains from then on out. Definitely the land of the rising sun. Shocking that most coffee shops didn’t open until around 10am, you’d think with the start of the day being so early you’d have more 6am coffee shops.

Literally nobody smells like B.O. - Or too much cologne, or anything really. I was taken aback. Usually if someone walks past you, you get a whiff of something, but not once did I smell anything on anyone! 

I think I saw a total of three homeless people the entire trip and they were all in Ueno Park and not bothering anyone. I come from a city with a very high homeless population as well as a Heroine/Fentanyl problem, so you can’t really walk more than a block or two without seeing them. It’s more sad that my city doesn’t have the resources to help our people in need, but I’m happy that Japan apparently does.

Nara Deer park and the surrounding Temples and Shrines were so much fun. I had not done any research on Nara, my kids just wanted to see deer, but as we kept walking, we kept finding more and more shrines and statues and scenic areas. We wanted to walk forever there! The deer will 100% bite your ass or balls if you buy the crackers though, so be ready for that.

Nobody talked on the subway. Well, almost nobody, and if they were talking, it was a light conversation. My kids (11 and 5) did an amazing job of staying quiet (without screens) and keeping behavior under control. It was so relaxing to be on the train cars and I love the jingles. My son still says “Doa ga shimari masu”.

We got a ridiculous amount of Gachapon toys haha. Some were so good that you couldn’t resist. My kids love them, and so do I. Some of them are so oddly specific. Definitely get some.

I was dreading going to a maid cafe, but my daughter, who calls them “Japanese Princesses” insisted we go. So my family, accompanied by my native japanese friend who lives in Tokyo, went to the AtHome cafe in akihabara. Let me tell you, it was super cute. The girls were so nice to my son and daughter. My daughter ate it up. She loved everything about the place. Ringing the bell, being treated like a princess, taking a picture. She’s typically super shy with pictures but the girl was able to bring her out of her shell and posed with her. It was beyond adorable. Yes, there were lots of older and grown men there alone, but there were also some solo girls, and everything was on the up and up and was very family friendly. Food was meh but the kids loved it.

Most people will switch to english, even if you are speaking japanese. I have been studying japanese for about 2 years. I’m no expert, but I can keep up with most store and restaurant interactions. That didn’t matter. They would speak english to me regardless. It was funny but definitely tells me that when they hear me, they either a.) realize I’m no expert, or b.) want to practice their english with me, or c.) are trying to make my life easier. 

The Manga Museum in Kyoto was SUPER interesting. I’m not even that into Manga but it was really fun to walk through the old school that has been converted to the museum, and see all of the history of where it all started. I enjoyed the Manga Museum most out of all the Kyoto sites we did.

The New York Bar at the Top of The Park Hyatt Hotel was awesome and the prices were comparable to my home city so there wasn’t much of a sticker shock. I highly recommend it. My wife and I are big fans of Lost in Translation and you definitely got all the vibes from that movie. The hotel itself is like a museum, and so beautiful. The big unexpected part here though was that we got a babysitter through Nina Poppins, and while expensive as hell, the girl who babysat my kids was INCREDIBLE. My kids are high energy, and I was a bit worried because when we met her she seemed quiet and shy, but when we returned to the hotel we walked in to see them all jumping on the bed and playing a tag game. It was exactly what I hoped for. Definitely using that service again.

Leaving Japan after our two week stay made me super sad. I did not want to return to shitty Americans and our self-centered, loud, rude, obnoxious culture. Everyone at the airport in Hawaii was bothering me. I was pining for the organization and quiet of Japan within an hour of leaving. Of course the first person I walk past on the airplane leaving Haneda reeks of body odor. I won’t lie, my first thought was “HOW DO I MOVE HERE?” but I know the realities of living in a place vs. visiting as a tourist. I know Japan has plenty of it’s own problems and it is unfair of me to assume it’s a utopia based on my visit, but I enjoyed my time there and am already planning my next trip.

Please note that these are just my culturally biased observations as a foreign traveller - I'm sure I got plenty of things wrong about Japan, but this is what I saw and felt and I don't mean to invalidate any truth or my own feelings by writing this. We had a blast and are looking forward to the next one.

This may be odd but rounding out my trip to Japan tomorrow, one of my kids favorite things to do while we were here was turn on Japanese kids network tv (think it was called wakey wakey or Mr. Wakey?) and they would play while that was in the background.
Obviously there’s numerous Japanese kids shows on YouTube but I’d rather not have them tempted by the brainrot. Is there anywhere online that i could find shows like this and stream it to my tv? If not no problem, but it was nice having it as background noise.

Hi, my name is Ari. I’m not selling anything - i promise. I’m a teacher in the U.S. and work with a lot of ESOL students everyday. I speak mandarin and am really bad at Japanese. I’m hoping this is a new take on comprehensible input. Video ideas welcome.

I'm curious what topics you may find beneficial or there may not be enough of on youtube? Thank you!