Job Discussion Forums

[Damd]

Hiya,

I'll be leaving for Osaka in two weeks and I'm trying to determine what not to bring with me. I have a large collection (at least 400 discs) of downloaded movies and music, as well as copied DVDs that I'd like to bring with me. Has anyone here ever been hassled about bringing stuff like this into the country with them? I don't know too much about what the Japanese prohibit from being brought into their country... however I know that drugs and porn are definetly not allowed. Japan has always struck me as a very liberal country in regards to sex, so not allowing people to bring porn with them seems very odd to me. I'd actually like to bring a little bit of porn with me... but I'm not sure if it's worth the risk. Any suggestions would be very helpful.

[PAULH]

[abufletcher]

Bringing porn into Japan (besides being foolish) is like carrying coals to Newcastle. Video shops here are awash with it. At the normal video shop I go to porn videos (well at least the lighter stuff) are mixed in among the comedies. I suppose that's so guys can pretend they're looking for regular movies instead of having to sculk around some back room. Most teens here regularly read manga comic books with scenes of sadistic and masocistic sex.

Seriously though, dude, you may have a problem if you can't travel without your porn collection. You ask about things you shouldn't bring with you to Japan? How about the hang ups of your previous life?

[Glenski]

Do you actually intend to bring 400 disks??? Pretty unreasonable to me. Pack 40 or 50 in a box, mail them in advance, and be happy. You can get plenty of music here.

Porn??? Pretty self-explanatory. Either you're pulling our legs on this one, or you need to stay home.

What else had you thought to bring?

[silent-noise]

i have a similar dilemna should i be going to japan...i have around 200 music cds and i'm wondering whether i should burn them, and then sell them all - using the money to get an ipod...or keep them and ship them over...i guess the former would be a better idea...but i feel that they have sentimental value...and i like the visual of a somewhat large cd collection...hehe...dumb, i know...

[callmesim]

Do what I'm going to do, put them all on an iPod and leave the CD collection with a family member or friend.

CD and DVD collections take too long to build up just to turn around and sell them.

[Zzonkmiles]

Regarding music, I recommend burning your CDs to your computer (use iTunes or Windows Media Player) or just getting an iPod. The apartments in Japan are really REALLY small. Your entire apartment might be the size of just your bedroom back home. You simply won't have the space for 300 CDs.

Other things I recommend NOT bringing to Japan:

1. A desktop computer. By all means, buy a laptop. You just won't have the space for a hefty monitor and a computer tower.

2. A mountain bike. Lots of people use bikes to get around in Japan, so you should be able to buy a decent one here after you arrive.

3. Too many clothes. You can have your folks ship extra clothes to you if you need them, but you will most likely be wearing business clothes most of the time here.

As for things you definitely SHOULD bring:

1. An ample supply of toiletries and medicines that you use back home. If you really like a certain brand of toothpaste or deoderant, for example, then stock up on them at a wholesaler or something and have them shipped to Japan.

2. Some photos and/or mementos of home. Culture shock will probably hit you hard in Japan, so it'll be quite therapeutic for you to look at old pictures of your family and friends.

3. Enough shoes, shirts, and pants if you are very very tall or wear an unusual size. I am 182cm tall (about 6 feet) and have had a difficult time shopping for business clothes because of my long arms. Even bowling can be dicey sometimes because my shoe size is at the border separating well-supported and sometimes-supported.

[Sweetsee]

Don't bring the chronic, plenty around.

[Willy_In_Japan]

Porn is not a good thing to take through customs. If you MUST have uncensored porn,.........try getting a usenet account.

I suggest www.giganews.com .....you can find a lot on usenet.

Regarding DVDs.......I have heard that it is possible that you can have copied DVD's confiscated at the airport if they check your bag closely. That being said, I waltzed through a few times with a bunch of copied DVDs. Of course, region protection is going to be a pain the neck regarding Japanese DVD players. It is possible to buy a region free one. However, you might want to consider a small Region 1 player to pack in with all of your original DVDs. Of course, if they are back ups, it wont be so bad if they are taken.

Another option is to bring original region 1 DVDs to Japan, and then use a computer and DVD burner to rip the movies so you can play them on a japanese player. Go to www.doom9.org for information on how to back up your DVDs.

Personally, I would forget about movies and bring episodes of my favorite TV shows on DVD or Divx/Xvid. Movies can easily be rented here. Music wise, I would probably rip all of my CDs and bring them in MP3 format and leave the originals at home.

[allyismycopilot]

With all that media it may be best for you to put it all on an external harddrive and bring it with you that way instead of CDs/DVDs...

Personally I'm storing all my media on my NAS (network attached storage) and just bringing it with me along with the laptops.

I already run everything off my Network at this point and rarely use the CDs/DVDs I have so it's not much of a hassle to dump them.

Before I upgraded to a 500Gig NAS I was using this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1209343&CatId=207

Alot of space and a good price. Pretty small too and would be easy to stuff in your luggage.

[Sweetsee]

Am I the only one who thinks that all this talk about how some kook can bring his porn here is out of order? Give me a break!

[Nismo]

[Sweetsee]

[rvsensei]

Don't bring booze, there's plenty of it in Japan. Do bring plenty of cash for the first few months. Money goes by quickly as you want to do it all right away.

[denise]