kainzero Wrote:According to Lang-8, Japanese people seem amazed that I cured my own bacon at home.

I know, that wasn't language or kanji related. But hey, they were impressed!

I'm impressed too!

zanzou Wrote:Reminds me a bit of this:
http://www.joeisjapanese.com/

rofl. love this!!!

Personally I always found it funny how Japanese (and recently Chinese!) like to compliment my use of chopsticks, in Japanese (or Chinese). I mean, seriously, who would understand such a compliment and still be incapable of using chopsticks?

Then again, maybe it's that I use them really awkwardly, and they can't help but notice, and feel they should at least say something?

One story I have about an amazed Japanese person is from when I got off the plane at Narita, and needed to fill out a disembarkation form. I couldn't read the kanji on it, so I had to ask an immigration officer for help.

He was amazed (and exasperated) that I wasn't able to read the form, and chided me on my near illiteracy. He was very helpful though, and read each section to me.

Mushi Wrote:He was amazed (and exasperated) that I wasn't able to read the form, and chided me on my near illiteracy. He was very helpful though, and read each section to me.

Every disembarkation form I've ever seen has had English on it. Are you sure that's not why he was surprised you couldn't read it?

JimmySeal Wrote:

Mushi Wrote:He was amazed (and exasperated) that I wasn't able to read the form, and chided me on my near illiteracy. He was very helpful though, and read each section to me.

Every disembarkation form I've ever seen has had English on it. Are you sure that's not why he was surprised you couldn't read it?

That wasn't my experience. They had two types of disembarkation forms, one being for foreign visitors entering Japan, and the other being for Japanese citizens. Since I was entering Japan with a Japanese passport, I was required to use the latter form, which as one would expect, was not in English.

Do you need to fill out any form to get into Japan even if you have a Japanese passport?

I forgot. People started giving me English forms lately for some reason.

masaman Wrote:Do you need to fill out any form to get into Japan even if you have a Japanese passport?

I forgot. People started giving me English forms lately for some reason.

I recall hearing that the paperwork did change sometime post-9/11.

My particular anecdote was from not too long before that, probably between 1994 and 1996, when I had a lot of travel in the region (due to the general business boom between the recession of 1992 and the financial crisis of 1998), although not particularly to Japan, but more to the Asian tigers of Korea and Singapore.

Which reminds me of another funny incident. When I wrote my name in romaji when I was going through customs at Kimpo in Seoul, they actually got mad at me because I couldn't write my name in kanji!

Since I'm doing RTK1 now, I have some confidence that I could do better today, should some similar situations arise.