Japan! Tokyo!
- Thread starter mwgdrwg
- Start date
krtek a houby
Against all gods
The Japanese are quite racist. They will treat you nice cause you have money but don’t expect more.So I want to go to Japan next year for my 40th. I've not had many opportunities to travel in my life, but visiting Japan is something I've always wanted to do. I'm determined to go. I've got a million questions so I'm going to ask some of the seasoned travellers on here
1) Is March a good time to go?
2) I've got kids, so I'm thinking of taking them for a week, either that or have a mid-life crisis and go on my own - is it a mad idea to take kids to Japan? There's a Disneyland and Ghibli Museum in Tokyo right?
3) I've heard that I should only stay in Tokyo for 3/4 days, then go somewhere more chilled out - any ideas?
Thanks!
krtek a houby
Against all gods
Speak for yourself. Sure, there's racism here, like in any other country, but there's plenty of genuine people here. A lot of racism I've encountered in Japan has been from Americans. But to say all Americans here are bigoted would be generalising.
Where did you go, out of curiosity?
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Ah, just like Britain then.
We've had very different experiences in Japan I think.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
I was just going on Google maps to check out what building you must have taken that shot in but then discoverd that Google street view in Tokyo have mapped out all the underground (and overground) walkways in train stations (and some shopping centres) etc, right down to the platforms, like a game of doom. Got totally stuck as the actual streetview seemed inaccessible.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Uh oh, I guess my wife and all my Japanese friends are just playing the long game. I shouldn't have expected 'more'.
There are indeed some racists in Japan, and I have seen it, but in all the times I have been there I've honesty personally gotten more shit (including racist shit) from Americans that I have come across while in Tokyo bars or clubs . . . And that's only three times.
In two cases it was very casually dropped in conversation (out of the blue context wise) but a quite serious racist comment / statement that they felt safe to blurt out to me. Almost like they wanted to turn the conversation that way. I've never experienced the same anywhere else as far as I can remember. The other American seemed to want to express some politically motivated racism and utterly exploded when I (as a white man) didn't agree.
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krtek a houby
Against all gods
The shot was taken from the Hikarie building, just before a pub crawl in Shibuya, below
mwgdrwg
Be a Pisces. Jam.
Absolute bollocks.
krtek a houby
Against all gods
Not going to dredge up old threads, but he's got form when it comes to ill-informed and yep, racist comments on Japan and the Japanese.
krtek a houby
Against all gods
Anyway, here's a nice thought
Ok maybe I was a bit harsh, sorry 
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
I subscribe to Black in Japan youtube channel and its just amazing how much relief the black Americans feel over there, "yeah they can be a bit racist and stare but its fine, I can handle it, I'm not actually in danger and its so liberating" tends to be the theme.
krtek a houby
Against all gods
Reckon I seen that channel. The staring happens, of course, but it's usually from the very young or elderly folks. Whether you be black or white. And it's almost always out of curiosity.
Again, not to say there isn't racism, Naomi Osaka is quite high profile and (especially after her support for BLM) gets a fair share of online abuse... from right wing Americans and Japanese nationalists.
Bahnhof Strasse
Met up with Hannah Courtoy a week next Tuesday
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
Theres a lot of "look at the funny foreigner" to it, with someone like Osaka they are constantly trying to make her misunderstand Japanese or to speak English and then dubbing her. Same with a lot of the western Youtubers who speak really good Japanese.
But the TV is just dire despite that aspect to the reporting and coverage anyway.
Some wicked clobber to be bought round there, just mad expensive. I know a top stand-up curry place up on the east side of Tokyo st.
Wait...
I think you’re talking bollocks. Of all the places I’ve lived in around these parts, the Japanese are the most open and welcoming of foreign cultures and what they can offer. Music, fashion, but not so much food.
They definitely have an overarching psychology (if not always a true understanding) of what western imperialism - if that’s what you can call the warlords of Kyushu maintaining a connection with outside trade during the Ieyasu period of isolation, and marching to Tokyo to create social and political revolution - helped to stimulate for their place in the modern world.
the staring thing is bollocks too. Maybe you just look a bit off-key.
sideboob
Well-Known Member
Depends where you are, but the more rural you go the more looks you get in my experience. I always thought people were staring because of my good looks, not so sure of myself anymore
Depends where you are, but the more rural you go the more looks you get in my experience. I always thought people were staring because of my good looks, not so sure of myself anymore
I could go into any pub in the rural North of England and as soon as they clock your accent it garners attention.
Saying this as a man, I have never ever felt unsafe in Japan at any time, even in Kabukicho. Can’t say the same for the UK. Just taking the bus sometimes people start putting it on you.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
It's always been goodish for me, apart from a few occasions, and the police constantly stopping me if I am riding a bike. It really does depend where you go, there are still some bars that refuse foreigners. The circles I travel in (garage punk rock scene, and my family) have been very pretty welcoming, apart from having my bottom front teeth smashed out by some arsehole troublemaker while doing a gig in a Tokyo suburb.
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
. . . . And I did have a small amount of trouble once in kabukicho.
Artaxerxes
Look out, he's got a gnu!
It's not common and the Japanese are welcoming lovely people on the whole but it does happen.
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you must have been being a cunt for that to happen.
big boy over here
ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
There really is no call for that. What the fuck is wrong with you? No I am not a cunt and did nothing whatsoever cunty what exactly has gotten stuck up your bum?
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ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
Yet you marked it out yourself as a place of potential trouble. I wasn't even a customer and it wasn't even at night, very early weekday morning. I was staying for a few months at an apartment in Shinjuku and one morning I was just walking around and got physically dragged into a side street and pulled towards some doors with these guys yelling at me all the way, legged it, they shouted at me but that was that.
Now stop being an absolute dick head.
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alsoknownas
some bloke
This is good advice to be fair. The maturity level on display here is miniscule.
