> 初めて日本に行った時、友達のお母さんが伝統的な和式朝食を作ってくれました。
>
> The first time I went to Japan, my friend's mother made me a traditional
> Japanese breakfast.

If I wrote the opening of the sentence in the following manner, how would the
meaning change?

> 最初に日本に行った時、

or

> 最初日本に行った時、

In this context, what is the difference between 初めて, 最初に and 最初?
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2012-08-21T15:49:30.050
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words
The difference between 初めて, 最初に and 最初
`最初に` sounds wrong in your example. `最初日本に行った時` I believe is correct. The
additional `に` is only needed if the "first" is like in a list of steps, or
describing who/what is the first to do something.

>   * 最初彼に会ったときにはあまり強い印象を受けなかった。 → The first time I met him, he did not make
> much of an impression on me.
>   * まず最初 **に** ゆでて，次に味付けする。 → First boil it and then season it.
>   * 最初 **に** 到着したのはトムだった。 → Tom was the first to arrive ("The first to
> arrive was Tom").
>

Other than that point, assuming your second sentence is then just `最初日本に行った時`,
then they basically mean the same thing. The only thing I would say is that
`最初` kind of implies many times, whereas `初めて` doesn't necessarily imply any
number of repetitions. At least that's the feeling I get from them, but that
could just be me.
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2012-08-21T17:09:46.497
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Here is my reasoning.

最初 refers to the beginning of a time period or to the beginning of a series of
events. (Cf. 日本に来たばかりのとき...)

As istrasci pointed out in his answer, the additional に strengthens the time
reference. (Cf. 日曜日街に行く vs. 日曜日に街に行く.)

初めて is used, as far as I can tell exclusively, for things you do for the first
time. (Cf. 初めて見た.)

The difference between

```

    初めて日本に行ったとき、
    最初日本に行ったとき、
    
```

is maybe best reflected in English as

```

    When I went to Japan for the first time, [the first thing I did was to find a convenience store and eat natto and I loved it.]
    When I first went to Japan, [I could hardly understand a word of what people said.]
    
```

In the first sentence, you talk about what Japan was like for you, as a first
impression. In the second sentence, you simply talk about the time period,
which coincides with your arrival in Japan.
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