Did Japan live up to your expectations?
Japan exceeded my expectations, especially Osaka. It's hard to put into words, but the life really suits me there, and I'm glad I didn't listen to anyone that told me that it was too soon to jump into it head first. I'm glad that's exactly what I did
In some ways, of course, Japan was "different" than I expected, but never really in a bad way. The only thing I can think of that's negative is ↓
Did anything disappoint you in Japan?
the fact that it's next to impossible for a quiet person like me to make real life friends if I don't go to loud places like HUB. Also, just in general with attempting to make friends with Japanese people, I found that the majority of interactions can never allow you to become more than an acquaintance with someone, let alone a real friend that you can be yourself around. I was already suspecting these things of course, but hoped to be surprised in the other direction. I've managed to figure out a method to get online Japanese friends, but I quickly realized a pattern where you talk a couple times, and then never again, sometimes even removing you as a friend after some time. That part is a bit disappointing, but the things that didn't disappoint are overwhelmingly positive!
Was your Japanese language ability a sufficient lubricant to help you navigate Japan?
Yes, in some ways, depending on the definition of the word sufficient. I'd say that I just barely got by in many situations, and the first month I definitely had to adjust a lot. By the time I was in Osaka in my third month, I think my brain finally accepted Japanese as a second language rather than just a language I'm learning, if that makes sense. I'm guessing you guys know what I mean cause it probably happens at a certain point to everyone who learns a language. If I zoom into some of the first month's details, I can remember my first time when the 店員 asked me if I wanted a bag in Japanese, and she ended up switching to english because I didn't understand
Actually, for a long time I didn't even know what word they were saying but from that day I understood whatever word it was as "okay, they're asking about the bag now". And I noticed all the different variations along the way, like 「ご袋どうされますか」 and so on. Fortunately, after getting used to it all, I never often experienced people switching to English with me when I responded in Japanese.
Sorry to make this part long but there's one more thing I should say. When I came to Japan I realized my insufficiencies. Basically, back in the US I drilled grammar so hard but didn't drill vocabulary nearly as much because I thought 2000 ish words would be enough. Well, I guess I knew the wrong 2,000 words
my experience with using Japanese might be unique in the sense that I rarely had a problem with the sentence structure by the time I was in Japan, but I often missed the meaning due to not knowing enough vocabulary words. The majority of my practice has been through texting, and I relied on kanji to understand/parse as well, so without that, it was more difficult. However, the times where I had no clue what someone was saying were rare. I even managed to go to a bank and go through the entire process in Japanese to attempt to send my friend some money (until the 銀行員 told me I can't without a phone number).
I'm now intending to focus on vocabulary more as well as focus on Japanese in general more to come back much better than last time. For the time being, I'm relieved to say that I'm at the point where the "core" of Japanese has solidified inside of me and what I learn can't disappear now, just the same as with English basically. I have the confidence that I will be able to learn any advanced concept thrown at me in Japanese now, because after thinking deeply about it, I began to understand it from an even different point of view than just daily usage. I don't know if that makes sense but you'll see what I mean eventually. Sorry for making this part long
What is your next goal now, especially with regard to Japan?
I'm going back in March, for three months again. My goal is still always to figure out a way that I can live there permanently, and I don't know how I'm going to achieve that without a degree and a currently depleting source of money, but I have to try. Firstly, I made some mistakes in my first trip to Japan, as to be expected, though I became really efficient during my last few weeks in Japan, and met quite a lot of talented people. I had to learn how Japan operates first from within, but now that I know, I think I have a better chance of connecting with the right people as well as potentially solving the issue of not being able to stay for more than 90 days at a time.
Still, to be honest, I can't say for certain whether it's possible or not for me to achieve what I'm trying to, but if I don't try in the best way I know how, then I might never find out, or it might be too late when I do.
What is the thing that surprised you the most about Japan?
難しいなぁ。。。Hm...
That's honestly a really difficult question for me to answer, I don't know why... There were a lot of surprising things but I honestly find it difficult to remember. Ah, here's a few things at least, although I don't know which is the most surprising. For one, there are some extremely loud Japanese people in existence which completely break the stereotype of Japanese people being quiet and reserved. It's usually 10, 20代 but sometimes people seemingly in their 30s too. I still remember hearing someone having a not-so-ear-pleasing karaoke session outside my window in 中野新橋 till his voice got destroyed. Another thing, although I guess I should've understood the magnitude beforehand, is the way Japanese people drink, especially the teens. Without fail, every early morning in 新宿 you can smell the reek of beer and (sometimes see) vomit from at
least hundreds of Japanese people. Bringing me to one more thing, I saw a quite disgusting bathroom in 歌舞伎町 that sealed the fate on my view of Japan's "cleanliness". With how many people say how clean Japan is, I was expecting not to see such a thing, but that and many other experiences around 歌舞伎町 as well as other places gave me no choice but to have a view that Japan is only clean sometimes, in specific places. In the urban areas, it's often not as clean as people portray it.
On the other side, there's a female bathroom, where I ended up hearing what probably looks like the same thing on the male side.
Haruto, where did you all go while you were in Japan?
I'll see if I can list them to the best of my ability:
Tokyo
渋谷区
代々木・代々木上原（そこで住んでた）
原宿
新宿区
歌舞伎町
中野区
中野新橋（そこでも住んでた）
調布市
深大寺
I probably missed a few places, due to a lot of events occurring in short amounts of time, inflicting a heavy amount of compression on my memories during my time in Tokyo.
Osaka
中央区・浪速区
難波
道頓堀
阿倍野区・天王寺区
ハルカス
上本町
生野区（そこでも住んでた）
I hope that's what you meant by where I went. If you meant like individual places and stuff, I went to A LOT of places...
Did you stay at 'gaijin houses' while you were there? How did that work out for you?
I assume you mean share houses for foreigners, right? Yes, I stayed at two while I was in Tokyo, one for each month. It worked out decently, especially the second month in 中野新橋 which was pretty pleasant actually. The first month in 代々木 was a bit difficult as I was the only male in the house for the majority of my stay, and the others didn't really talk to me for the most part, even when I tried to talk to them. It was fine though, I didn't mind too much
Second month was pretty good because everyone came in around the same time except one guy, and we all got to know each other at the same time and were friendly with each other and talked frequently.