Things they have..and things they dont

[Katiekoneko]

Sorry if that made NO SENSE

I was wondering for those who live or have lived in Japan
What are some things you thought they would have there ..but they don't
or things you thought they wouldnt and did
and all that type stuff

Or interesting things they have..
Im just interested in weird info

I was told that they don't have peanutbutter.

[Dana]

they have this really grossly sweet crap called "peanuts cream" (or peanut cream) that is nothing like american peanut butter. But at most larger grocery stores you can get a jar of skippy. I haven't seen much chunky or other brands though... I brought two large jars of Peter Pan extra crunchy with me, one of the best things I did.

something that is very uncommon here that i took for granted at home: an oven. Oh how I miss my oven. I can't cook ANYTHING. I have one damn burner in my apartment, and most people I know who even live in larger apartments still only have like two burners and a very small convection oven (enough to cook one or two pieces of fish).

They have the same VCR tapes we have in America and Canada (unlike the European PAL system) so I was able to get my parents to tape 24 and send it over XD Its soooo nice having stupid american television playing every now and then, like just commercials or local news. Makes me nostalgic lol.

[Katiekoneko]

How about DVD type stuff?
Alot of my tv shows are on tv now..

[KKF]

Bittorent is your friend. When Im away or I miss a show I just download it burn it on a cd and watch it on the tube. If Im really lazy I'll just watch it on my computer. :) And the comercials are usually taken out. ;)

[Katiekoneko]

Bittorent??

[JudoPorkChop]

Here ya go. (http://www.bittorrent.com/)

From there, it's just a matter of finding sites that host torrents for what you want to see.

Depending upon your specific viewing needs, some things will take time to locate.

[DrSax]

www.mininova.org is also a good place to find basically everything ever released on torrents. Just a warning, not everything found there is exactly legal.

Azureus and BitComet are two of the more popular programs used for downloading torrents. Bitcomet can be found at www.bitcomet.com , while Azureus can be downloaded at azureus.sourceforge.net .

As for the actual topic, I hear It's impossible to find good mexican food in Japan, but I've never really been there so I don't know for sure.

[Kaji]

Regarding DVDs, Japanese DVDs are region 2, while American DVDs are region 1. There are 3 ways to solve this problem without resorting to finding a new copy of said DVD online or in a US release (or vice versa).

1) Multi-region DVD player. They're a little hard to find, but they're really convenient when you can get your hands on one.

2) Computer DVD drive. You can change the region for the drive up to six times (on most) DVD drives, so just change it to Region 2 while you're in Japan to handle that stuff and play American ones on the one you brought from home (or vice versa if you have a Japanese standalone unit). Or you can always go ahead and install a second DVD drive and set one for each region.

3) If you have a Mac, download MacTheRipper. It'll take and pull everything from the DVD, and then you can kill the Region code (set it to 0), and burn an exact copy of the disc, with the region encoding and Macrovision protection removed.

[Sbabbari]

www.mininova.org is also a good place to find basically everything ever released on torrents. Just a warning, not everything found there is exactly legal.

I miss suprnova.org :(

on the subject of stuff they have/don't have

They have all sorts of weird baked goods, especially in the Convini's, and roughly 495437435 variations on a hot dog, yet the Japanese still are incapable of making a half decent bagel :mad:

[deepbluevibes]

I miss suprnova.org :(

on the subject of stuff they have/don't have

They have all sorts of weird baked goods, especially in the Convini's, and roughly 495437435 variations on a hot dog, yet the Japanese still are incapable of making a half decent bagel :mad:

thepiratebay.org

[co_delphi]

2) Computer DVD drive. You can change the region for the drive up to six times (on most) DVD drives, so just change it to Region 2 while you're in Japan to handle that stuff and play American ones on the one you brought from home (or vice versa if you have a Japanese standalone unit). Or you can always go ahead and install a second DVD drive and set one for each region.


In regards to this option I do have a small warning for you. I have found that many programs have a setting within that will countdown the total number of times you can change the region setting. A good work around is to use a program called regsnap to take a snapshot of your registry, then change the region, if it comes up with a warning about a limited number of changes then do it, and then run regsnap again and take another snapshot. it will then compare the two snapshots and show you what changed and give you the option to reset it back. In this way you will have the setting to change to ensure you will never run out of times to change it.

As for other torrent sites I also suggest the following:

http://www.torrentspy.com/
http://www.torrentreactor.com/
http://www.mvgroup.org/forums/ (for educational shows)
http://www.animesuki.com/ For all the anime your heart desires.

[Kaji]

Don't happen to have anything for killing the region encoding on a Mac do you? Mine's got one change left on it, so I'd rather use it to change to R0...hehehe...