I've been told that 昼ご飯を食べた時、散歩する isn't right because you can't have lunch
while going for a walk. But in my textbook, there's the following sentence:
日本に行った時、写真をとります. The book explains that taking the photographs occurs after
going to Japan (while in Japan) and that the overall tense is future, as the
first clause's tense only indicates it's time relation with the second clause.
So, why is that sentence correct, and 昼ご飯を食べた時、散歩する incorrect?
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2015-08-02T10:57:05.130
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question
grammar adverbial
昼ご飯を食べた時、散歩する and 日本に行った時、写真をとります
「日本｛にほん｝に行った｛いった｝時｛とき｝、写真｛しゃしん｝を取ります｛とります｝」 from my interpretation reads as
"In the time after I have gone to Japan I will take pictures".

「昼｛ひる｝ご飯｛はん｝を食べた｛たべた｝時｛とき｝、散歩｛さんぽ｝する」 reads to me as "In the time after I have
eaten lunch I will take a walk".

While that seems fine in English there's a quirk, where the first implies that
when you are taking pictures you have gone to Japan, implying that you are
still there -- and you haven't yet to return prior to taking the pictures. In
this case it's being used for travelling, and the "round trip" so to speak has
yet to complete when the pictures are being taken.

If you use that as the rule for the grammar point the latter now essentially
means that you're in the middle of lunch when you take the walk, since the
"round trip" lunch hasn't completed (if this isn't entirely correct please
correct me).

_That being said, I don't see why you can't take a walk while eating lunch. I
mean, it is hard/ridiculous but it isn't impossible, so I'm guessing that it's
not **wrong** wrong, it's just **unnatural** wrong, which is the case of the
equivalent sentence in English as well._
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2015-08-02T14:09:48.267
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answer
I think that ～た時 translates better as "when" or "while" than "after."

> 日本に行った時、写真をとります  
>  When I go to Japan, I (will) take pictures.
>
> 昼ご飯を食べた時、散歩する  
>  When I eat lunch, I (will) take a walk.

A literal translation of 昼ご飯を食べた時 might be "At the time of eating lunch."

A quick sentence search on jisho looks like they usually use "when" as well:
[jisho.org た時
sentences](http://jisho.org/search/%E3%81%9F%E6%99%82%20%23sentences)
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answer