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For questions about Yamasa or Japan, the language or living/studying here this directory SHOULD contain what you need. If
you can't find what you need please contact us - we have a large team here in Okazaki waiting to help you - Declan Murphy
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Most of the questions received by the staff of Yamasa's International Office have been asked at least once before, and as almost all of the staff are located in Japan there are the following four factors to consider. The primary purpose of publishing this expanded FAQ is so that you can find what you need without having to wait about 24 to 72 hours during business days (longer if your email is sent on a Friday night or at the beginning of a holiday break) before we can get a reply to you by email (or fax).
Another reason why we have collated all of the FAQ questions into one centralized directory (until 2002 the answers to
frequently asked questions were located at the bottom of each and every file) is because of ease of maintenance,
particularly in terms of managing translation (see language neutrality), and
because too many emails were coming in through the old mailto email address - which has been discontinued.
<a href="mailto:faq@yamasa.org">
To make it easier to find what you want, we have arranged the FAQ into 9 sections. Some topics are difficult to classify - for example lets consider a question such as "How to obtain a Japanese driver's license"?. Its hard to decide whether this would be best located in the "About Japan", "Life-in-Japan" or perhaps the "Travel" section? For this reason we have ensured that the entire directory is fully searchable and have included an alphabetical index as well to try to make it as easy as possible to locate information. The search box and alphabetical order links are located at the top of every page of this directory. Another thing to remember is that the English language has both British and North American spellings and regionalisms - and the English version of this FAQ (the other language versions are also designed to be inclusive of regional usage) endeavours to take this into account.
For example we try to include both
for things such as "hire car" & "rental car", so that all English speakers can understand the information. There are some
exceptions, for example you will be able to find the word "bus" or "subway", but not "omnibus" or "underground". Most
spellings are the North American spellings. For example, "standardized", not "standardised". If you find any exceptions,
you can blame the maintainer (who rightly or wrongly thinks North Americans are
usually "less cosmopolitan" in their English usage and therefore less likely to
understand English lexicon from outside their region).
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A search box is located on every page in the FAQ as it now is with virtually every page on yamasa.org. The search engine is powered by Google. Things to think about are British versus American spellings or usage, misspellings, etc.
Also located on every page in the FAQ is an alphabetical index. This is updated everytime a new file is added and is designed to complement the color coded menu on the contents page and the search box. Again, things to think about are British versus American spellings or usage.
If the information you are looking for is on our server, but you can't find it through the search box or alphabetical index, then an advanced search will definitely find it. If you try that and find that we simply do not have your answer online, please contact the maintainers - we should have your answer in 24-72 hours.
Last update: 2002/DEC/12
All text, pictures, graphics, video and any other data on this Web server is copyright (c) 1996-2002 by Declan Murphy. All rights are reserved.
This document may be quoted freely only for non-commercial purposes; please use the following acknowledgment and source code if you are web publishing,
"From the <a href="http://www.yamasa.org/faq">yamasa.org FAQ</a>"
and also notify us of the URL of your site whenever doing so.
This FAQ may NOT be mirrored or freely redistributed by electronic or printed means without the prior permission of the maintainer.
With the exception of services to students directly provided by the Yamasa Institute, these files carry no guarantee of accuracy whatsoever. If you are going to utilize the information provided, read the terms of service first. No mention of any product or service (for example prices of restaurants in Okazaki, method for obtaining a drivers license, train fares to towns in distant Hokkaido etc etc) on this domain constitutes a recommendation or an endorsement by the maintainers in any way, shape or form. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information presented here and considerable investment is made in continuous improvement, some information will inevitably become out of date in due time. If it is important, check first. And should you find any mistakes, please contact the maintainers.
This FAQ is maintained by Mr Declan Murphy and the staff of the International Office of the Yamasa Institute. Declan is also the webmaster of the yamasa.org domain, and is responsible for the management and accuracy of all content published, in all languages. Contact details are below.
If you can't locate the information you are looking for or have found what you think is an error, please click here.
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8.1.1 - What is the Japan Student Travel Guide project about?
8.1.2 - Why doesn't the Japan Student Travel Guide cover all of Japan?
8.1.3 - Is the Japan Student Travel Guide available in print from?
8.1.1 - Is the Japan Student Travel Guide available in print from?
8.1.1 - Is the Japan Student Travel Guide available in print from?
8.1.1 - Is the Japan Student Travel Guide available in print from?
8.1.1 - Is the Japan Student Travel Guide available in print from?
This section contains answers to questions about travelling in Japan including the online travel guide, phrase book, travel by train, bus, ferry, hitchhiking, driving in japan & rent-a-car, finding and reserving accommodation, major festivals, skiing, snowboarding & winter sports, national parks, safety
9.1.1 - What are newsgroups? Are they are a useful source of information?
An excellent source of information about Japan and its language can be found in the newsgroups. Newsgroups are a form of bulletin board, and basically consist of "written conversations" conducted over a period of time ranging from a couple of hours to in some cases a week or two.
Usenet is not e-mail, nor is it the WWW, though it has recently become increasingly easy to access both USENET and FJ (a Japanese hierarchy) through browsers so that a huge amount of information about Japan, the language, living here etc is now easily available, and searchable through Google.
There is a catch though. While the information being entered into USENET by millions of visitors each day is immense, the quality can vary enormously. It is always worth checking facts with traditional resources such as a library or if available, expert opinion such as faculty at a research university or institute. Though there are quite a few newsgroups covering Japan, the following newsgroups are perhaps the most useful for English language readers.
9.1.2 - What do the terminologies used in newsgroups mean?
Glossary: As a general rule, it is always better to read the FAQ of each newsgroup before you begin browsing the group. If you are unfamiliar with the meaning of words such as killfile, lurk, newsreader, filter etc in a USENET context - do a bit of reading concerning the terminology before participating.
9.2.1 - fj.life.in-japan
This newsgroup is fairly small in terms of the total number of individual posters, but the traffic is reasonably high. Most (though not all) of the posters are foreigners resident in Japan, for many of whom the newsgroup is as much a social or support network as anything else. Discussions can (and usually do) ramble quickly off topic, and the atmosphere can frequently resemble a kind of private club with a lot of "inside jokes", but there are also frequently absolute gems of information posted if you are patient.
A disappointing aspect is that there are very few Japanese people posting to the group. You need to have a reasonably high level of English or Japanese to participate actively (though Japanese is not essential). It should also be noted that some of the regular posters will be very quick to dump on anyone considered to be asking a particularly dumb question. You may need a thick skin.
I suggest that if you have a specific question to ask, that you first use google to read the
archives in advance (chances are that whatever it is you want to ask has been discussed at least once before) and/or
lurk for a while until you have a feel for the newsgroup and can identify some of the more fractious personalities.
Click here to access FAQ/Alt-FAQ, or the Newsgroup
9.2.2 - fj.rec.travel.japan
The traffic in this newsgroup is fairly low, and the majority of readers are Japanese. During recent years the number of English language posts has slowly increased, though Japanese posts still predominate. It is still a bilingual group (one of very few in the FJ hierarchy, where posting is predominantly in the Japanese language).
The newsgroup is good for investigating different travel destinations.
Click here to access Alt-FAQ, or the Newsgroup
9.3.1 - sci.lang.japan
This group discusses "All aspects of the Japanese language". It is basically a learning community where members share their knowledge, ask and answer questions about the language and learning Japanese.
The majority of the posters tend to be English speakers and live outside Japan, though there are plenty of exceptions. You need to have a reasonably high level of English or Japanese to participate actively (Japanese is not essential though a newsreader that can read Japanese script is).
One problem is that when asking grammar and usage questions, you may notice that there can be as many different answers as there are posters - often with conflicting advice (and variable quality). There is plenty of good advice, though for questions concerning grammar or usage, it is probably more reliable and efficient to post on the OCJS bulletin boards and get your answers from professional faculty.
Click here to access Alt-FAQ, or the Newsgroup
9.3.2 - soc.culture.japan
This group discusses "Everything Japanese, except the Japanese language." Unfortunately, this broadness of topic area is both its strength and its weakness. The group is very high traffic, but much of that traffic is of very low to absurdly low quality.
A key problem is that there is excessive cross-posting, and the core of regular members are too few in number in proportion to the overall number of posts, much of which is best described as "noise". The group becomes more bearable if you filter out the netkooks (a range of posters including the full spectrum from racists to conspiracy theorists, Japan bashers to Japan worshippers etc) and its best to learn how to killfile irritating posters. Most of these are fairly easy to spot, as they crosspost to other newsgroups that are usually unrelated to Japanese topics.
All is not lost though - serious questions to soc.culture.japan will usually elicit a serious reply. This is particularly the case if you cross-post (only) to a separate but related newsgroup called soc.culture.japan.moderated - which is a moderated forum free of netkooks (albeit correspondingly extremely low in traffic, see the FAQ for details).
Click here to access FAQ, or the Newsgroup
9.3.3 - fr.soc.culture.japon
This group discusses "Everything Japanese - in French". If you are a French language speaker it is a useful forum. The group is relative stable in terms of traffic and membership. For more information it would be best to lurk in the group for a while and then participate.
Click here to access FAQ, or the Newsgroup
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