Legion needs help ; advise me please on Tokyo

Hi guys,

I need some help please apologies for the vagrant behaviour.
Just dropped in Tokyo (Im staying in Shinjuku right now in a nice quiet place but very near the station).

I need to know a lot of things..

Firstly whats a good place to study Japanese bearing in mind I work full time? I am not sure the school/class would like it when I have to work overtime during the week. So perhaps a Sat class would be good.

Good places to shop for clothes (like some nice fitted jeans and shirts) ,shoes (pointy), bags (well one man bag) which are relatively cheap.

Where to buy Crest Regular, Closys , Act fluoride... even colgate would be good though I'd probably have to order them from abroad? If so what is a good site to order from?

And whats a good site for toy models? Japanese is fine. Like a hobby online shop

 

Study: Go to Metropolis and find someone interested in a language exchange. It's cheaper, and more flexible. Get a girl and you might get to fuck her later.

Clothes: Hmm... Jeans Mate & Zen Mall are pretty cheap, and somewhat fashionable. I've found Jeans Mate to be far more casual (and thus more my style). Uniqlo if you want really generic but cheap stuff. There's also about 4-5 H&Ms in town (one in Shinjuku even). They're dirt cheap. Hope you're not too big though.

Western Toiletries: United States of America or the United Kingdom. Bar that, you can go to National Azabu in Hiro, but after about 4-5 trips it's actually cheaper to buy a ticket and buy the products in their respective countries. Japanese tooth paste isn't that bad. Hope you brought lots of deodorant though. They fuck that up worse than pizza.

 

LOL - Where's Metropolis?

Is Jeans Mate and Zen Mall in Shinjuku? I'll try and googlemap them when I get home.

Well Japanese toothpaste doesnt contain as much fluoride because of Japanese limitations and I was trying some home tooth whitening procedure and as such my enamel is being stripped and needs replacing with calcium and fluoride.

I bought some AXE spray - it says body spray but at the back it has him spraying his underarms so hopefully its ok...

 

The internet.... and, in gaijin-friendly areas every Friday. You can't walk into a shop in Roppongi and not see one. But, I'm all about reading digital now.

Probably. They are next door in Shibuya... right by the kouban a block up from center-gai.

Meh... not my thing. I always bring extras home. I can live w/ the Japanese toothpaste. The dentists are awful though. Get your teeth cleaned back home.

 

I guess my home now is the Philippines.
I get my teeth done there, they are good and cheap.

Speed dating:
I wouldn't mind going for fun but I bet the girls will be rough?
Also my Japanese is non existent therefore I think i'll struggle
Might go to the next one or the one after that is probably better

http://internationalspeeddating.jp/sch/?action=entry&ps=29

My flatmate keeps asking me to go out with her to the parties she has with her friends..last time there were 20 of em and 1 guy apparently. However it was good I didn't go becuase there was a psycho girl apparently who loves foreigners and she meant the stalker kind like from Audition

 

What kind of parties? Speed dating or just having fun? Couldn't hurt to meet new people.

 

Just for fun - actually I don't need to go to these type of things to go out but it's kind of different lol
Actually I need a electronic translator really...can anyone recommend one thats a decent price in TOkyo?
In Hong Kong they were like $200 US dollars or more if I recall

 

You mean a Denshi Jisho(wordtank)? Buy a Casio one, they're good. If you just want one for daily use then any 20-25k¥ one should suffice, if you want the best there is get one with the Kenkyusha dictionary in it, it'll last you a lifetime. I just purchased the Casio XD-A10000, it has everything you'll ever need and more. Also, there's Filipino language option in there (since you mentioned the philippines). However, electronic dictionaries are made for Japanese people so if your Japanese is non-existant then I wonder how useful it'll be for you..

I don't mind Japanese toothpaste that much, just pay good attention to what taste you're buying.

Get a language partner to talk Japanese with and pick up some books to learn the basics on your own. I would recommend Minna no Nihongo, it's available at every bookstore and a very good way to get a grasp of basic Japanese grammar, a starter vocabulary and if you're willing to invest the time some Kanji. It's also quite cheap, the set with the text and workbook should run 3500-4000Â¥.\

As for cheap decent clothes, you might wanna check out Muji as well besides the stuff Gaijinpunch already mentioned. There's also GAP and Benetton in Tokyo. And a stroll around Shibuya/Shinjuku/Harajuku should allow you to find some shops yourself.

 

I still have a Canon wordtank from 1997. But it has the best jump-feature I have ever experienced in any denshi jisho I've tried so far.

 

I especially like that the writing features have improved drastically, meaning that even the most ugly, wrong stroke order written kanji will pretty much get recognized.

 

They don't sell any of the toothpaste brands you're asking for. Most of them aren't even the usual paste type.

Like GP, I imported all of my hygiene products from the US or get them from the US navy base.

 

Not everyone wants to give a sailor a hand doogy for a tube of tooth paste though. :dance:

 

Pointy shoes and man bags? Go to Shibuya 109-2

As for the toothpastes if you cant find them in the regular Matsumoto Kiyoshi then try around Roppongi, Roppongi's Don Quihote for example

If I found gaijin-sized import condoms there then Im sure you'll find decent toothpastes :thumbsup:

 

Thank you so much guys!
I think I'll join a sunday football ( and i mean soccer) team too for the exercise.
When's the next gamebar meetup btw?

Ill get an iphone 4 tomorrow at Harajuku I guess - rammed im sure

 

What kind of parties? Speed dating or just having fun? Couldn't hurt to meet new people.

 

Just having fun
I need to go learn some Japanese!
Works not in busy periods right now so I'll go and start studying in the evening and on weekends.
I want to take proper intensive lessons so that I can communicate with my workmates on a basic level as soon as possible.
I'm in Shinjuku so if anyone recommends a good place to study then please let me know