Toast's Japan CA log - Reflecting on 6 Months of living in Japan

[Toast]

Yesterday marks the day that I have been living in Japan for 6 months now.
Crazy how fast time flies. Figured I should write some sort of self reflection on what I've done, what I could have done better and my experiences so far.

My goals when I came to Japan on April 6th 2022 were pretty simple:
Fuck hot Japanese girls
Learn Japanese
Experience real life living here

To keep this a little more organized rather then randomly babbling nonsense like I normally type ill break it down into these 3 categories.

Learning Japanese
School started off extremely slow. Class began with learning Hiragana and Katakana and extremely simple Japanese. Like hello, my name is Devin, I like girls. Ect. So pretty much I fucked off from school and coasted for the first couple months, never really studying, never really doing homework, and passing the class based on what the lesson was that we studied in class, and what I already knew. Only until maybe the last month of the first quarter did class actually have any valuable grammar that I didn't previously know. But even though its new stuff. It was not really useful for actual conversation.

This is a reoccurring though about Japanese Language school as a whole, and ill get more into that later.

At the end of the first term we had a JLPT N5 sample test. I essentially scored the exact same as i had on a practice test before I had come to Japan. So almost no progress with learning Japanese for the first 3 months of living here.

What experience I gained concerning Japanese was my ability to speak and formulate ideas with the Japanese I already knew. Since I was doing a lot of approaching outside of school. I was getting tons of practice formulating sentences and finding work arounds to explain the things I wanted to talk about. As well as becoming comfortable speaking nonsense and just trying to get the other person to understand my limited Japanese. This is probably the most valuable thing I did in the first 3 months. Just getting over the fear of speaking and sounding dumb. Probably one of my strengths is not giving a fuck about looking dumb and just doing shit. Definitely attribute the AA program to this aspect of my life. I've done way more cringy and dumb things then trying to compliment a chick in Japanese.

2nd term starts and its still considered the beginner class, but there's tons more Kanji, vocab, and more complicated grammar. TBH i still didn't really study that much, and didn't do all of the homework. I just coasted of my ability to absorb information in class and my test taking skills to pretty much pass all the tests with around a 70%. At this point the Japanese grammar being taught is a little more useful for stringing together sentences and making more complex ideas. But still not really totally useful for conversational Japanese. At this point I'm still doing some approach, lining up dates, and speaking Japanese outside of class. 2nd term ends and i still feel like i haven't gained much in terms of speaking ability but my understanding of Japanese grammar is a bit better. Started actually doing more studying this term but not nearly enough. Took a sample JLPT N4 test and passed. So there is some tangible progress being made.

Personally I think of going to language school as a vessel to get into Japan. You can and will learn Japanese in class, and being forced to go to school for 3 hours and being exposed to the language is a good thing. But I think that the structure of the class is not great. Depending on what your goals are for the Japanese Language class structure is a bit incorrect for learning conversational Japanese.

For me I don't give a shit about learning polite Japanese, which is what is coming up at the end of the next term. Its essentially useless to me. Unless i get a job in a position where in talking to people who are a higher authority then myself. I'm literally never going to use this. As well as the school starts you off learning the MASU form and then making you conjugate everything into the dictionary form. When Learning dictionary form and then conjugating into the MASU for or regular form seems like a much easier transition. I think that the exposure to the language every day is what is most valuable about going to a language school. As well as essentially its just give the school money and they give you a visa. Ezpz

The things I do appreciate about school is the friends I've made. They have made life very enjoyable and I've had many fun experiences with the people I've met here. But that doesn't contribute very much to my language learning journey. Its more of a life thing.

All in all, I think that if I could do things over again with this school. I would probably say fuck the curriculum and self study more about the things I want to do with the language, actually becoming conversational, and just coast in school with barely passing grades to keep my visa status. Use the school as a place to test the things I've learned on my own and use it as a place to practice my speaking, reading and listening skills.

 

[Toast]

Experiencing Life in Japan
As of now I still don't really feel live I've experienced true life living in Japan. I have been coasting off savings, and haven't worked for 6 months. Its been nice traveling, drinking with friends, and fucking hot Japanese women. But at this point its not truly a Japanese life experience.

But I do think I've learned a lot about what its going to take to stay and live in Japan long term.
I've found out that the cost of living in Japan, and in Tokyo, Is actually not as crazy expensive as people make it out to seem. Coming from San Francisco and having all my money be in USD. The exchange rate for my money has been amazing, and cheap as well.
My rent per month is $550, and with the Japanese Yen declining the most it has in a long time. My dollar goes way farther and my rent cost goes down as well.

Utility bills are pretty cheap. I pay probably ~$40 a month for Gas, Electricity, and Water a month.
My phone and Internet bill are about the same ~$40 a month.
Health insurance was $150 for the entire year cuz it is subsidized by the government.
There is a national pension everyone living in Japan needs to sign up for but you can get it waived if you do not have income.
Food can be quite cheap as well. I just buy a 10kg bag of rice for like $15 and it lasts me fucking forever. As well as chicken and eggs are really fucking cheap here. 10pack of eggs costs $1. So if u cook at home its really fucking cheap.

Where a lot of my money has gone is going out partying and drinking with my friends. Drinking in japan at bars or izakaya's can be expensive. Some of the places we go the shots are 10bucks each. Clubs are more expensive for men to get in to. Like $35 for guys and $15 for girls.

First couple of months here my friends and I were clubbing every weekend and drinking until 5 am quite regularly. So a decent chunk of change went into that. Now we've transitioned to going to places that have 2hr all u can drink and eat for ~$35. Much more cost effective.

I still try to keep my dates cheap as possible. Go to a café and get a coffee for like $4. Maybe grab a beer after from the convenience store for $1. Walk around and then pull home. Or go to a bar and have like 1 drink and then try and pull home.

Life in Japan so far has been extremely fun. The convenience of everything is hard to beat. Train system is perfect. Trains are essentially never late. Buses are very efficient as well. Taxis are a bit pricy, but they're everywhere and also very convenient if ur smashed at 3am and cant take a train home.
One thing that sucks about the train system is that last train is around 12:30am and starts up again at 5am. Although this is annoying it creates an interesting societal aspect of people just getting hammered all night cuz they're stuck in the place they missed the train. Its very fun to meet the random Japanese people at 3am who are hammered just trying to have fun. As well as chicks who've missed last train and are looking for a fun guy to spend the night with are easy lays.

11pm is the golden hour for picking up some chicks cuz they're done partying with their friends but maybe don't wanna go home. So if u cool and can show them a good time they will stick with u and u can smash.

There's a million convivence stores in Japan and they're actually good. Not like the shit 7/11 in America. 7/11 here has good food, its cheap and they're open 24/7. Want ramen at 4am, a beer at noon, extra socks, laundry detergent. 7/11 got ur back.

Its hard to beat the convivence of Japan. This aspect of life is amazing
So far I really have nothing to complain about with my life in Japan. My apartment is small, but its cheap and I don't need much space. I live close enough to a major transfer station that hot chicks are everywhere. There's good food near me. My school is close enough to ride my bike to if i wanted to. Got good friends who are nice and fun to hang around. Life's good right now.

 

[Toast]

Fucking Hot Japanese Chicks

Probably wont go into too much detail here since my log already detailed almost everything, but ill give some thoughts on what I've done and what could be done better.

I think so far I've been decently successful with Approaching and Dating in general.

10 lays so far
3 came from Online
1 from school
6 from Cold approach. 2 of them were same night lays - Approach and then pull home and smash

I've gotten laid here in Japan more then I did in my whole life in America. I think. I don't remember my numbers from the states but it wasn't amazing.

Approaching here in Japan is quite different from other places. The whole approach culture is literally baked into society and has been for a long time. Dude have been approaching chicks since samurai were a thing. So the approach culture is something that is normal for Japanese people. Chicks get bothered all day from scouts looking to hire them to be models, prostitutes, etc. Girls guards are naturally higher depending on the area ur walking in. Some places are known for having extremely high guards. Shibuya, and Shinjuku for example. Party areas with extremely hot chicks, but they have extremely high guards. Ikebukuro where I live, is generally easier to talk to chicks, but that 10/10 chicks is more rare. So u pick ur battles lol.

Also its extremely common for chicks to literally ignore ur entire being even though ur talking to them. They will just keep walking eyes forward without even glancing at you. Like you literally don't exist. Its a completely normal interaction.

There are some nuances that are a bit different from what i used to do in San Francisco. Calling a chick cute is basically the worst opener u could say. Its boring, chicks hear it all the time, and uncreative. The best interactions I've had were when i was being spontaneous and interesting. Almost dumb to a point. Like asking if a chicks ripped jeans were destroyed because of her laundry machine. Or saying I'm so full of chicken cuz i just ate at a restaurant. One chick was holding a beer and i just told her i was really thirsty and i wanted her to give it to me. She thought it was funny and gave me a sip.

Another thing that is different is literally walking next to a chick and just saying random shit until she responds. Like she might not respond at first but glances at you, so she's listening. if u can make her laugh the conversation starts from there. But maybe u said like 5 other things with no response before that. So learning when to eject from a conversation and not ejecting too early is something that's a bit different.

I think a lot of the success I've had here in Japan is due to the foreigner charm. Japans been close for 3 years. There's less foreigners in the country so I'm a bit more rare then when tourism was booming. And mix that with Japanese chicks who are interested in white guys, that makes me more attractive. That being said, just being white or a foreigner wont get u laid. There is some work to be done on my end. But it is a factor to consider and also something that really never changes as a white guy in Japan. I'm always going to be the white guy in Japan.

Currently my focus is mostly on securing a Visa and learning Japanese.
Rn I have 1 reg I've been seeing pretty regularly. A 2nd girl who I'm probably going to smash tonight and will become a reg. A 3rd who lives really far away but were still in contact and ima see her in Saturday. 4th chick I've hooked up with 3 times but now she seems to be falling off. Been trying to get her to come out but she never giving me a concrete day to meet up. And I just went on a date with a Chinese chick so ill try to smash her as well lol. Rn I'm doing alright in the girl department.
So ill try to juggle these chicks while i focus on more important things then getting laid.
Online dating is something i do passively. I can score dates every now and then basically with no effort so if i wanna get laid while I'm focusing on my self and my own goals. Ill keep doing online.