re: Anyone here been to Japan?

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I never saw kfc there

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They're there. Probably in Ropongi.

They have an odd Christmas holiday involving KFC. Japanese KFC raw material quality is exponentially superior to US KFC, and I understand recipes are country specific.

I spent 8 weeks in Japan on a work project, mostly in Yokohama(very fun city). Also ventured to Fuji, explored Tokyo for a weekend, an Onsen resort area (near Tochigi), and Kyoto (very overrated in my opinion). Most of the cities are super dense but clean. People are generally shy but nice if you approach them.

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They call it “Kan-toch-kee”.

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Breakfast had fried chicken - I didn't hate it. When in rome.

Did you live there? I think I would enjoy for a year/ 6 months

I just want to know if it’s easy for a white guy to get laid there

Yes, visit family member living there for a job assignment. Non Military related. Both non
Asian. Loved it. Great people, friendly, helpful, clean, fun. Go if you have the chance.

I've been twice in the last 2 1/2 years. My BIL is in the Navy and has a command over there. We were able to stay on base which made it way more affordable.

Overall, we've probably spent around a month there total. This will be long so bear with me.

We've done:
Yokusaka/Zushi (base and surrounding):
-went to a parade (BIL marched and he was about a foot taller than anyone else)
-drank in The Honch
Kamakura:
-Giant Buddha
-Cool little streets with shops and restaurants
Yokohama:
-Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall
-Cup o' Noodle Museum
Kawasaki:
-Nihon Minkaen Japan Open Air Folk House Museum
MT. FUJI
Osaka:
-Doya Doya Festival (over 1000 years old!)
-Ipso Facto, which is the best bar in the world and probably the Universe
-Owl cafe
-ate and drank our way through the streets and just admired the fun, whimsical architecture and art.
*definitely my favorite city
*we were on the bullet train to Osaka from Tokyo during the National Championship game (it was 10 am there) and we were trying to listen but our reception was spotty at best...we found out the Tigers won during the aforemention thousand year old religious festival...luckily, there was a lot of cheering already so we didn't stand out.
Nara:
-the Deer, obviously
Kyoto
-Traditional tea ceremony (we didn't do the kimonos but they offer it)
-Bamboo Forest
-Senbon Torii (Fushimi Inari-taisha Shrine). There are 1000 Torii gates!
-Geisha district
Niigata
*Random restaurant was one of the top 2 meals of my life
-Just an overnight to catch the ferry to an island the next day
SADO ISLAND
*About 2 hours off the coast of the mainland but you can get there by ferry (we took the Jetfoil! It basically flies)
-Rented a car and drove the entire coastline South to North (it's a small island). So much interesting stuff to see.
-Hit up a few Sake breweries.
**Sado has the most sake breweries in Japan (made
possible by their bumper crops of rice) and also the
highest per capita consumption
-Poked around an abandoned flotation plant
-Poked around an abandoned gold mine
-We met some locals who took us on an island adventure:
**Saw the rare birds (crested Ibis)
**Went to an oyster farm, met the farmer and his
family, he walked us through the process, let us
shuck, and they sent us on our way with a huge bag
full of oysters. And his wife made us coffee <3
Tokyo (every prefecture):
-Ninja Bar(Akasuka; my second favorite bar)
-Natural History Museum (it was pouring so we killed some time there, it was really well done but only half the descriptions were in English so we just made our own stories up for the rest)
-stayed in a traditional Japanese Ryokan
-Kawaii Monster Cafe (Harajuku)
-Both a hedgehog cafe and a cat cafe
-REAL LIFE MARIO CART!!
**It's exactly what it sounds like
-Old Town Tokyo (Yanaka)
**(Cat town) known for being a sanctuary for Tokyo's
strays
**tons of shrines and beautiful cemeteries
**Yanaka Beer Hall
-SUMO TOURNAMENT!!

So much more that I'm leaving out. We basically ate and drank our way through the streets of Japan and tried to engage with the locals as much as possible

We were supposed to go back for a third time this year (to meet my baby nephew, who was born over there), but couldn't, obviously, thanks Covid.

Food is amazing, sake is amazing, public transportation is amazing. Robots and shite everywhere.

TL;DR: Japan is fricking awesome.

Great place to vacation. Michael Corleone nailed it

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I’ve been to Vietnam, I thought it was far away but somehow I ended up there one day while driving down Florida blvd.

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Ooh. So you go down by Beraire High?

Military and it was years ago in the 80’s.

Spent two weeks in 2007 in Asakusa at a hostel geared towards foreigners with a group of friends.

Tokyo is very clean and people were very friendly. Saw a few homeless men early in the mornings that had tucked themselves into back alleys and didn’t try approaching my fellow female and myself. (On our way to the AM/PM convenience store for our breakfast inari while male friends were still asleep) PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS BASICALLY ALWAYS ON TIME. So don’t be late and also don’t be loud.

Also a mother brought her son up to the two of us at one point near the Asakusa shrine and introduced themselves in English. He was a small boy learning English early and part of his homework was to find and speak to native English speakers. He even gave us paper cranes he made to say thank you for helping.

Another man approached us with a map of the US asking where our group was from and when we pointed out Louisiana, he was so concerned for how we were all doing after Katrina two years previously.

I loved the trip and consider it an amazing experience of my youth. Food was great, 99 yen stores were awesome, people were nice, we felt safe and I would definitely go again given the opportunity.

ETA - Pizza is weird over there. Potatoes and mayo, corn kernel, and some other weird toppings I can’t remember that were popular. We went to a pizza place at one point and literally the only thing I could eat in that place were the randomly presented delicious fried tater logs.