Originally Posted by: PonyOneyeah, i've been thinking of doing that this summer... see fortunately I work in hospitality, and it's easier to get a work visa in this industry than any other. So I may look down that avenue too, if things continue on the way they are. Can you drink on the streets there? Because damn, if i can walk down the street in Shinjuku with a couple hott little Japanese girls and one of those massive cans of Sapporo, then I'm gonig to be stuck there...

I wish my HS had Japanese... not many Japanese folks in Boston relatively speaking... I took Italian.

I think you can drink on the streets. I don't know how old you are, but remember that the drinking age over there is twenty-plus. I know for a fact that it's legal to smoke on the streets, and more or less everywhere else as well :( . If you're asthmatic, steer clear of the smokers' carriages on the trains.
Oh, and don't forget to try some BOSS COFFEE! That stuff kept me awake on many a late-night train trip.