Philippines, Taiwan or Japan?

[Kristie]

Has anyone been to any of these places?

[Hughto]

I've been to Japan. Landed in Osaka, spent the majority of my time in Kyoto and also visited Nara. It was very beautiful there. I loved the culture.

[Kristie]

Have you been to HongKong by chance?? I've been to HK and I hated it so I'm worried Japan would be the same, although I've heard they are completely different and almost everyone I talk to liked Japan (nicer people and cleaner)

[renee]

Not been, but of those three I would choose Japan! I studied Japanese (a little bit) when I worked for a Japanese company and, yes, I imagine it's different than HK.

What did you hate about HK though? Because I know that Japan can have the same type of weather, it's VERY crowded, but the culture IS different, and they absolutely LOVE North Americans so you would be treated really well :)

[Hughto]

I did not go to HK. However, when I was there, there were students I was staying with who had just been to HK. They said it was very different. It was almost like being on the other side of the world. The culture and governments are very different, which causes them to be very different.

I was there over New Years of the millenium. New Years was when everyone was out, and it was so crowded. I didn't like that. I am short and felt like I was almost trampled to death a couple times. However, their celebrations for the new years was amazing. The rest of the time I was there, there were a lot of people, but no different then being in any city here.

That being said, Kyoto is NOT Tokyo. I don't know how I would have felt in Tokyo. Kyoto was very traditional and not as busy.

[Kristie]

What DIDN'T I like about HK? Here's my list:
- The people were VERY rude, they didn't have the time of day to help you
- The food was terrible... I actually couldn't eat anything while I was there. I didn't want to eat it either because I had no idea what I was eating ...cat, dog, rat, who knows! (in 6 days all I ate was 3 apples, 1 package of noodles and 2 bowls fulls of cereal!)
- It STUNK so bad... my luggage reeked of HK for MONTHS after I came back home (and I went to aust for 3 weeks after HK). The polution was terrible... you could look directly at the sun and it was just a circle in the sky...and that was on clear days!
- TOOOoooo Busy... you could hardly walk down the street
I wont continue, but I'm sure you get my point.. :lol:

[Hughto]

Yeah, Japan will be different.

-People were friendly and helpful.
-If you like America Japanese food, you'll be fine there. It is way better there! And, you won't be eating pets there, just rice, fish and seaweed.
-It wasn't polluted. In fact, they have higher emisions standards and better technology then us. It was very clean. I didn't even see litter.
-Again, Kyoto wasn't too crazy other then New Years eve. However, I can't speak for Tokyo, which is much more busy.