Produced by Isao Tokuhashi
Edited by Kelly Sun
Mail to: info@myeyestokyo.com
Roppongi Hills
The mega-complex which incorporates office space, apartments, shops, restaurants, cafés, movie theaters, a museum, a hotel, a major TV studio, an outdoor amphitheater, and a few parks.
*Roppongi Hills. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved September 18, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roppongi_Hills
Father and son from the US
I am from Honolulu, Hawaii. It is my second time visiting Japan.I visited Japan when I was very young for the first time and it was only for flight transit.
We’ve been here 4 days already. We stay in Shinjuku and we already went to Tsukiji and Ueno. People here are very friendly. I love Japanese food especially yakiniku and ramen. We have some Japanese restaurants in our hometown too.
This time we’ll tour only in Tokyo and we will leave tomorrow, but we’ll come to Japan again in November to visit Kansai area to attend a friend’s wedding.
Question: How do you keep Japan so clean?
Married couple from the US
Husband: We arrived in Japan last night from Texas. We will stay here for three days and then continue our trip to Taiwan. I had never been to Japan before. I heard that it was very clean.
Wife: He likes Japanese food.
Husband: Yes, such as sashimi.
Wife: So we’ll go to Tsukiji Fish Market. Now we’re going to the Tokyo Tower. Show us how to get there, please! lol
Husband: Every architecture and construction looks so strong and steady, for example the bridges, the streets and the buildings. Actually I had been involved in water flow and constructions in the past and now I work for a non-profit construction organization in the States.
Wife: Sorry, we need to go. We don’t have much time!
Opinion: I think Japanese are courteous and peaceful people. You can make very good friends with peoples of neighboring countries.
People from France
We’re from Normandy, France. This is our first time in Japan and we’ve been here for three weeks. We went to Kyoto and Nara. Perhaps we’ll go to Mt.Fuji and Hakone later this week. We’re going to Tokyo Station today.
It’s a very nice country. We love ramen, sushi, fish and vegetables in Japan.
Question: How many years do we need to learn the Japanese language?
Couple from Italy
We’re from the Northern Italy, a town near Milan. This is our first time in Japan. We’ve been here for five days and have enjoyed this country very much. We went to Kamakura and Nikko. We saw the Buddha statue in Kamakura. It was impressive because there are no seated figures in Italy.
We also went to Shibuya. It was nice because we like to see some local people. We’ll continue our trip for two more weeks to visit Kanazawa, Takayama, Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Hiroshima.
In Rome, there are ancient buildings such as the Colosseum, so we are curious of more modern destinations like Tokyo. However, Japan is not newly developed in some areas. Kyoto is quite an old city, so we expect to see a lot of monuments, temples and shrines there.
We’ll go to Hiroshima because it has a depressing history. We’d like to learn and share our experience with other people.
Question: How do you manage to understand the train/metro system?
Couple from Austria and Spain
Man: I’m from Austria and she’s from Madrid, Spain. We met each other at a party in Madrid.
Man: We went to the “Weekly Shonen Jump Exhibition” here. “Captain Tsubasa” was very famous when I was a child.
Woman: This anime was called “Oliver y Benji” in Spain.
Man: It’s very famous within the whole Europe.
Woman: I know “Dragon Ball”.
Man: “Sailor Moon” is famous, too.
Man: We arrived in Tokyo yesterday. We used airbnb to stay at an apartment near the Imperial Palace. We’ll stay in Japan for two weeks to visit Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima. People are so friendly and everything is very organized and efficient. In Spain, everything goes much slower and in Austria, things are a bit faster than Spain (lol).
Man: You have noticed my Chinese character tattoo. It represents the Wu-Hsing (五行, the five elements). I’m familiar with Asian culture because I’ve been to China to learn Chinese and my company has a factory there.
Man: We love Japanese food, especially sushi. We had twice yesterday for lunch and dinner lol.
Question: How is the education system in Japan?
Married couple from Indonesia
Husband: We’re from Makassar on Sulawesi Island. I’m studying at a university in Kyoto and we are here on vacation. I’ll complete an one-year course in the upcoming November, so this would be the last chance for me to come to Tokyo. My major is in Engineering and I’ve studied Disaster Resilience. Japan has overcome a lot of natural disasters, so I thought that I would be able to manage them if I study in this area in Japan.
Wife: I had been to Kyoto for three months. I visited Japan to see him. Our baby is five months old that means when he came here with me he was only two months old.
Husband: He has a Japanese middle name, it’s Yuuji.
Husband: I love ramen. There’s a halal ramen shop in Kyoto. I also love takoyaki!
Question: How do you have a good healthy life like old people in Japan?
Thank you very much for your cooperation!
…Who wants to ask the next question?
Roppongi Hills
*Interviews by Keiko Murayama, Kumiko Kaneko, Harumi Suzuki, Takahito Nishimura, Tomomi Tada
*Photos by Tomomi Tada
*Special thanks to Eikaiwa Begin
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