Going to Japan isn't really an option for me (for various reasons that I won't get into), but I have a week's vacation that I have to take in the next couple months that I will lose if I don't take.

I rate my language skills as low-intermediate.

I'd like to go somewhere (in the US) and have a good experience with at least the Japanese language, if not Japan's culture.

There's a Japanese museum/garden 4 hours south of me (I'm in Central Florida) that offers occasional things, but the classes are geared towards people who can be there every week, 1 day a week, and the place seems to be aimed at English speakers, which makes financial sense, at least.

I'm open for suggestions on how to make the most of my vacation time. I have a decent amount of money budgeted for my vacation, but I'm not rich. The main thing is to have fun doing it, but learning/using Japanese is high on my wish list for the vacation.

(Alternatively, doing the same with Esperanto is an option, but as far as I know the big US Esperanto conference just happened and I missed it.)

Oahu is considered the 48th province of Japan by most Japanese. Though they need a visa and you don't.

This might be too far away/expensive, but Hawaii has a lot of Japanese culture. For example, in Honolulu, there is a tea hut for tea ceremony (Jakuan), and tea (banquet) house (Natsunoya), museums (Honolulu Academy of Arts), shinto shrines (Hawaii Kotohira Jinja and several others), Buddhist temples, gardens, and other Japanese cultural activities like kyudo, ikebana, kitsuke, and gagaku. You can contact Honolulu's Japanese Cultural Center and UH Manoa's East-West Center for more information, if you are interested.

Thanks. I had kind of discounted Hawaii because I thought it wouldn't have much Japanese culture, but I guess it has more than I expected. I'll definitely look into that, especially Oahu and Honolulu.

wccrawford Wrote:There's a Japanese museum/garden 4 hours south of me (I'm in Central Florida)

Where is this / what's the name of it? Because I'm in South Florida and that sounds pretty awesome.

Edit: Google led me to http://www.morikami.org/ and I can't believe I haven't known about it until now, thanks wccrawford!

Twentytw0 Wrote:

wccrawford Wrote:There's a Japanese museum/garden 4 hours south of me (I'm in Central Florida)

Where is this / what's the name of it? Because I'm in South Florida and that sounds pretty awesome.

Edit: Google led me to http://www.morikami.org/ and I can't believe I haven't known about it until now, thanks wccrawford!

That's the one! Enjoy it for me! A couple friends of mine went and they said it was amazing. I'll probably go one day, but it's more of a weekend thing than a week-long vacation, I think.

How are the Japanese language services at Disney World? If you pretended to be a Japanese tourist could you get by with just speaking in Japanese?

sheetz Wrote:How are the Japanese language services at Disney World? If you pretended to be a Japanese tourist could you get by with just speaking in Japanese?

That's an awesome idea. Sadly, my language skills wouldn't be good enough... And I'm too obviously an English speaker.

I did notice that all the parks have Japanese maps (with 90% of the words actually being the English words in katakana) and even the orange pass at the space ride at Epcot has Japanese on it.

wccrawford Wrote:

sheetz Wrote:How are the Japanese language services at Disney World? If you pretended to be a Japanese tourist could you get by with just speaking in Japanese?

That's an awesome idea. Sadly, my language skills wouldn't be good enough... And I'm too obviously an English speaker.

I bet if you let the Japanese speaking staff at the hotels and theme parks know ahead of time that you're learning Japanese that they would probably try to work with you. Especially if they are visiting from Japan I bet they'd be very flattered that an American would be so interested in learning a part of their culture.

Could you do a homestay with a Japanese family in the States? Or even a Japanese college student? You could check community colleges, universities, even Japanese grocery stores and churches (if they have those where you live). You might be on the hook for some reciprocal English assistance, but if you spin it that way you might be able to find a Japanese immersion microclimate close to home.

Delina Wrote:Could you do a homestay with a Japanese family in the States? Or even a Japanese college student? You could check community colleges, universities, even Japanese grocery stores and churches (if they have those where you live). You might be on the hook for some reciprocal English assistance, but if you spin it that way you might be able to find a Japanese immersion microclimate close to home.

Sadly, there seems to be a lot of Chinese and Korean influence here, but not much Japanese.

That's a good thought, though. I'll have to put some time into thinking how to take advantage of it.

Just did a search to see regarding Japanese language services and Disney World and it appears they offer a wireless headset with translations for roughly 30 rides and shows.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/Languagetranslation.htm

Best of all it's free of charge! Next time I go there I'll definitely take advantage of this service.

sheetz Wrote:Just did a search to see regarding Japanese language services and Disney World and it appears they offer a wireless headset with translations for roughly 30 rides and shows.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/Languagetranslation.htm

Best of all it's free of charge! Next time I go there I'll definitely take advantage of this service.

OMG. I have an annual pass... I'm going to have to see if I can get the headset, too. Awesome.

Edit: I notice they list "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience", but that isn't actually there any more. Captain EO is back. I wonder if it's translated?

Seconding Abdos' suggestions.

Waikiki always has tons of Japanese tourists, so there are many businesses owned by Japanese natives, lots of Japanese food, and plenty of Japanese signs and printed matter. If you can get up your nerve, there are plenty of opportunities to practice speaking, and if you can't, there are rich opportunities for eavesdropping. I don't live on Oahu, but when I'm there I almost always have some kind of exchange in Japanese.

When you're in your hotel and/or car, there are two Japanese TV stations and one or two Japanese radio stations.

Also, a lot of local culture came from the early Japanese agricultural immigrants. If you're in Hawaii on a weekend between now and mid-September you can attend an obon festival. (This occurs in August in Japan, but in Hawaii we stretch it out for three months.) Here's a schedule: http://www.champuru.net/blog/2010/06/02/...le-hawaii/

If/when you need it, I can give you advice on which one to go to and how to get there. Just email me.