Curious Customs: Tips for Visiting Japan, Part 2

Advantages: A great adventure
Disadvantages: Leave that handkerchief at home!

...), makizushi (rice and fish or vegetables wrapped in dried seaweed and rolled into a cylinder shape) and temakizushi (a handmade cone of seaweed filled with rice and other ingredients). Sushi in Japan is fresh, delicious and a world away from the stuff sold in the UK. There is a huge variety and it's worth trying the more unusual toppings such as tobiko (flying fish roe) and uni (sea urchin). Sushi is served with soy sauce and wasabi, a green paste made from Japanese horseradish. Wasabi is extremely strong and hot, so don't make the gaijin's classic mistake of eating a large piece of it. It may be comical to watch the unsuspecting foreigner gasping and choking but try to avoid being the one everybody is laughing at! **Sashimi** This is simply sliced raw fish, again served with soy sauce and wasabi. Most people are surprised to discover that it...

Mitsudan 22.08.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Customs (Japan)

Konnichiwa! Tips for Visiting Japan Part 3

Advantages: Successful communication feels like an achievement
Disadvantages: It pays to invest some time and effort

... <10> Communication Welcome to the third and final part of my top ten tips for visitors to Japan. Having looked last time at the potential pitfalls for gaijin (foreigners) in blowing their noses and taking a bath amongst other hazards, this time I'm dealing with the biggest minefield of the lot - the all-important business of communication. So here is tip number 10. The Devil's Language? The brick wall up against which most foreign visitors come in Japan when trying to communicate is of course the Japanese language itself. It's said that in the sixteenth century the missionary St Francis Xavier, on discovering the difficulty westerners had in deciphering a single word spoken or written by the Japanese people, concluded that Japanese had been devised by the devil to prevent Christian missionaries from doing their good...

Mitsudan 25.02.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of General: Japan

Japan delivered to your door

Advantages: All things Japanese for the discerning British shopper
Disadvantages: In store labelling/signage isn't the best

...*Japan is now apparently in the centre of London!* Japan Centre is a series of businesses based in London Piccadilly, with the stated aim of having Japan 'delivered to your door'. It's an absolutely wonderful idea for a diverse range of people: from someone looking to take their first tentative steps towards trying sushi, or for crazed Japanophiles who can't cope without a weekly supply of edamame, sake and good quality sushi rice. All under one roof you can find a retail store, a popular website for ordering Japanese goods, a restaurant, sushi classes, Japanese recipes (in English), a user forum and a bilingual recruitment agency. Much as I love Japanese cuisine I can't speak more than ten words of Japanese, so this review will focus on the retail and online stores and some of the added extras offered on their site (www...

edinburgher 14.09.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Japan Centre

Kyoto, the OLD capital of Japan.

Advantages: Cheap area, gorgeous attractions and temples, good for short visits!
Disadvantages: Limited activity so best for -5 day visits.

...I visited Japan at the end of this July, and have only just returned. I must say it was the holiday of a lifetime. Flights cost £900 each via British Airways. We visited Kyoto for 3 days. We got there via Shinkansen from Tokyo, and stayed at the New Miyako hotel, just over the road from Kyoto station. Kyoto was absolutely gorgeous and very easy to navigate around. You can get just about anywhere you want to from Kyoto Station. There are buses, subway trains etc. 220 yen is all you need for a bus ride to anywhere along the Kyoto bus lines. That works out at around £1. You just hop on the bus and pay when you get off. We visited Toei movie land which was a bit of a dissapointment. www.eigamura30.com. Looking at brochures we expected amazing movie scenes etc but it left a lot to be desired. A lot of it was shut off, and most...

Jellypigs 18.08.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Kyoto (Japan)

Is he made of honour?

Advantages: Scotland scenes, funny parts
Disadvantages: Predictable

...Is he made of Honour? That is the question we are asked in the 2008 movie, Made of Honour. As you can probably guess by the title, it's a wedding themed movie and also a play on words as the real spelling should be maid of honour, but this story is somewhat different. Tom and Hannah have been friends, best friends for 10 years, even since they met at Cornell University in New York. Tom accidently jumps into her bed but, even though he is a bit of a heart throb at uni she is having none of his charms and fatly refuses him. He respects this because I think every other women he has met just falls for his charms but has no substance about her. Tom has a bit of a reputation as a ladies man but with Hannah it's different. They have a real connection, they have regular standing coffee and cake dates and can actually talk about feelings etc...

Spottydog11 03.07.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Made Of Honour (DVD)

Recommended places to visit in Japan

Advantages: Great places to visit, many things to do, new technologies
Disadvantages: some things are pricey especially the latest technologies, jet lag

...I visited Japan last summer with a friend and we spent about a month there. We visited the following cities: Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kyoto. ~Tokyo~ Tokyo is a lot like London. It's made up of a number of very distinct villages - each with their own character and often populated with a variety of characters - some of whom may only come out at night - and are not necessarily vampires! Most of the main areas in Tokyo are stops on the Yamanote Line - Tokyo's equivalent of the Circle Line (only more efficient!). Getting a day ticket to go round this line doesn't turn you into a train spotter. It is an ideal way to get your bearings and it provides a reasonable overview of the City. The streets of Tokyo are laid out in a grid pattern similar to those of New York and other larger cities. At first sight, each street not only looked...

rambo 01.05.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of General: Japan

Made of Honour

Advantages: Very funny
Disadvantages: Predictable

..., suffice to say, that it is a typical chick flick ending. The film is a predictable chick flick but it is a good one for the most part. There are some very funny moments in the film, such as when Tom (played by the very dishy Patrick Dempsey) is dressed for his participation in the Highland Games in a kilt that sits about ten inches above his knees. There is obviously a lot of word play surrounding the fact that Tom is a male maid of honour and this is very well done. All of the main characters, with the exception of Colin (who is just the perfect man on paper), have depth and the viewer is made to really care what the outcome is. We really feel for Hannah as she weighs up whether to opt for the dependable Colin or for the more risky Tom. However, the film does have its flaws. My first issue is with the title of the film...

chcouper 18.05.2008 (17.05.2008) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Made Of Honour (DVD)

A ROCK AND ROLL LANDMARK.

Advantages: Every second of it.
Disadvantages: ---

...Roughly counted my music collection consists of 3500 recordings ?2600 Cds and the rest in the format of glorious vynil-. You always have some favourite disc and in my case the one I?ve listened to the most is Deep Purple?s ?Made In Japan?. Don?t ask me why, but contrary to others, the more I listen to this masterpiece the more I like it. A BIT OF HISTORY Some rock?n?roll critics credit the origin of what we know today as heavy metal to Black Sabbath, Led Zep and Deep Purple. As it would be downright useless to argue this we?ll take it as a true basis for convenience sake ?though I have my own ideas about it-. Whathever, Deep Purple was one of the most influential bands in the history of hard rock, no doubt about it. In my humble opinion the best and probably never unsurpassable period of both quality and power spanned from ?In...

SNOOPDOGGY 09.02.2004 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Made In Japan - Deep Purple

Simply Breathtaking!!

Advantages: Extended Jamming, superb musicianship, brilliant songs
Disadvantages: Long drum solo

...on the first disc is so good that I rarely listen to the encores As for the album itself it mostly consists of material from the truly brilliant machine head album, in fact 4 of the 7 tracks on the original version of made in japan were from this monster of an album which had just been released, but going back to the material on this album itself it consists mostly of what are considered purple classics, the opening number highway star is one of those instantly recognizable driving anthems that features heavily on rock radio stations and rock compilations, the next song child in time is a completely jaw dropping excersise in excess, ritchie blackmore plays what can only be described as a phenomenal guitar workout and ian gillan manages to scream his way through that song in a way that most rock singers would happily exchange their larynxes for...

shaneaw 29.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Made In Japan - Deep Purple

Easy travel in Japan!

Advantages: easy to use, use as many time as you want during valid day
Disadvantages: limited location to exchange voucher

...Traveling in Japan is quite costly. So having a Japan Rail (JR) Pass is an excellent way for the foreigners to see Japan. However, you want to evaluate your situation before purchasing the JR pass as if you do not use it, there will be about 20% service fee for unused ticket refund or not getting full value for the money. Confusing? It could be... but it is fairly simple. JR pass: (quick overview) 1* pre-purchased Exchange Order (voucher) outside Japan for the foreign travelers on temporary visitor status (include nationals living in foreign country) 2* JR Pass allows you to travel free on any "Japan Railways" trains (but NOT private rail lines) including well famous Bullet Train (Shinkansen - Hikari and Kodama, NOT Nozomi). Also some JR bus systems. 3* 2 types of pass: GREEN and ORDINARY. Green is more costly than Ordinary...

mckey 21.01.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Japan Rail Pass