4 ms·

Japan is awesome. I’m a brown guy and went to Japan and I had the mistaken thought that I would feel like an outsider. I couldn’t be farther from the reality.

Japan is awesome. I’m a brown guy and went to Japan and I had the mistaken thought that I would feel like an outsider. I couldn’t be farther from the reality. Japanese people are so kind and welcoming, and their cities and towns are beautiful, safe, and clean. Just a simple hello led to some amazing conversations, and I felt as if I was living at the edge of the future because we talked by passing our phones to each other. Google translate enabled us to have real time conversations and get to know about each other. I met an old man who gave me my Japanese name and dropped some wisdom. A businessman and I shared our thoughts on life and family over a late night off the map hole in the wall type of seafood ramen place. Ran into some people at a bar who happened to work in the same industry as me and we shared stories over beers. When I missed my bus in a remote town, a family reopened their restaurant and cooked a meal for me. I was there for only a few weeks, and I wish I could move permanently to Japan. If any Japanese company or entrepreneur wants to hire me as a software engineer manager or as a co-founder, hit me up!

noboostforyou 4y ago
Riding the bullet train from Kyoto to Osaka, accidentally left my iPhone in the seatback pocket. Didn't realize it until way later, but was able to use find my phone to see that it was still powered on and had made its way all the way to the end of the line. Went to the local train station's lost and found, they called the other station where the phone had been turned in. They shipped it to where we were staying. I can't imagine ever getting my iphone back like that in the US.
- Fomite 4y ago
  My wife left her Kindle on a United Airlines flight, and two days of searching later, they found it and shipped it to us. A friend left an iPad on a flight. That was shipped back to him as well, albeit with a dick drawn on the screen in sharpie.
  - darkwater 4y ago
    You usually (there are some exceptions) don't hop off and on planes. With trains is the norm, so you simply cannot compare the anecdotes.
- envp 4y ago
  I lost some clothes, sneakers in a duffel bag on my first ride with LIRR from NY Penn. Nothing valuable, but certainly essential. Was told off by the on-duty person to either show them a picture of the bag & items or get new ones lol.
- InCityDreams 4y ago
  Nark Rober - 200 wallets. https://youtu.be/jnL7sJYblGY https://youtu.be/jnL7sJYblGY
- GekkePrutser 4y ago
  Fwiw I live in Barcelona, pickpocket capital of Europe due to misguided laws, and I always turn in lost property to the authorities. Over time I've turned in at least 10 ID cards, phones and a bunch of bags. It does happen :) Of course I'd return a wallet as-is as well without dipping in the cash (though I would count it and register the amount on the form when submitting it to the authorities to avoid any 'mislaying') but I've never found one with any in it. Most of the 'lost property' I find here is just discarded by the pickpockets. Also, when there's identifiable information in the wallet I would contact the person on Facebook or LinkedIn if possible. PS the misguided part is that pickpockets get only a fine for thefts below 400€. Even if it's the 5000th time.
- tornato7 4y ago
  I had a similar thing happen to me in Belize. I left a bag with my $2k DSLR on a park bench and didn’t realize it until hours later. I went back and talked to a couple of the groundskeepers, someone had turned it in and they had it waiting for me, nothing missing.
bravura 4y ago
I am curious for perspectives on this. My immediate guess, based upon dealing with people not Japanese specifically: Japanese culture welcomes outsiders who respect the culture. But once you try to get deep into the fabric of the community (buy property, marry a local, etc.) there is a strong invisible wall of which you were not aware. Most cultures seem to have different ideas of where and how boundaries are created to push away outsiders. The notoriously cold Germans are initially very cold, but once you're on the inside there is complete trust. Meanwhile, the flaky southern California "let's do lunch" thing is an endless series of weak onion-like translucent boundaries and you never can get to the core of things.
- Groxx 4y ago
  Japan is consistently very welcoming of visitors. It's a fantastic place to be a tourist - clean, safe, welcoming, and top-tier cheap transit in major cities. If you're a permanent resident though, you start grinding against the extremely strong culture of conformity, which you can never quite achieve simply due to biology.
- kalleboo 4y ago
  I've lived here nearly a decade and never felt any kind of "visitors are fine but don't you try to think you can belong here" kind of vibe. The only "you don't belong here" vibe is from the constant "microaggressions" from being a visible minority - people will see your face and assume you don't speak Japanese, can't use chopsticks, etc etc, but those don't come from malice but rather ignorance. Once I open my mouth and speak Japanese all that mostly goes away. I'm married to a local, have plenty of friends who are married and own property or businesses, no problems of any sort. Get along well with neighbors, business partners, hobby circles. The biggest barrier will be work and business culture, where Japanese will have strict requirements on cultural integration (can't be rude to a client or make them lose faith in your company) and have higher requirements on dedication to work (over health and family) than westerners and that's where I've seen all the friction. edit: I want to clarify that this is the experience of a white westerner. I hear things are very different for people from other parts of Asia (SE Asia/China)
Larrikin 4y ago
As someone who lived in Japan, most everyone is extremely friendly to your face, especially if you are a tourist and demonstrate some ability to speak Japanese or know about the culture. Out right rudeness is extremely rare, especially in the Kantou region. But when you live there you learn about the underlying racism. If you could pass as Japanese, because you are of east Asian descent, you will be fully expected to be completely fluent in the language and culture. If you aren't then you must be extremely dumb, because you are Asian after all. Any insight you might have coming from a western country is disregarded, because why would you know anything the collective society doesn't already know. When I was switching from teaching English to a tech job, I recommended a childhood friend I grew up with in America to take over my position. He was making far less teaching at a much worse eikaiwa school. In Japan, you include a picture with your resume, and when my boss saw that he was Filipino American, he outright said they would prefer someone who looks American and went with a previous coworker I had told him was awful. If you aren't obviously east Asian you get the opposite treatment. You'll constantly be complimented on your ability to do basic things like pick up food with chopsticks and the ability to say hello. If you can have a conversation, there will be constant "compliments" on it. It gets annoying very quickly. But when it rears its ugly head the worse is when you try to do anything real in the country a tourists wouldn't normally do. Lots of people in Tokyo bike to various places, but when I studied there we were warned to either buy a bicycle and make sure its registered or just never ride. Borrowing a friends bicycle was outright forbidden. At some point you will be stopped by the police and if you can't prove you own the bike or have permission to ride it, you will be taken in until they figure out the owner. The few students who did get bikes were stopped atleast once every couple weeks. Depending on perspective the racism can be considered light atleast. Black and brown friends usually would say the annoyances were atleast obvious and evenly applied. The racist landlord will tell you up front that hes going to increase the monthly rent on the apartment you're trying to rent because he "had problems with foreigners" before and you don't have a song and dance with a racist person that really doesn't want to rent to you finding constant issues with your application until you give up. You can quickly scout around to find someone who agrees not to do that or atleast less so. Certain banks will outright deny certain services to foreigners, but if you know the right banks you can get a credit card. The police will bother you, but if you have your gaijin papers they aren't going to beat you or make up charges. For white friends it was usually extremely shocking that such things existed at all and usually were the most vocal about the societal racism they were experiencing for the first time in their lives. But I think it made them more sympathetic generally to people from their home countries. Despite all of that, I loved my years in Japan. A lot of the smaller annoyances usually go away once you actually get to know people and explain the issues you're having. One girlfriend even took it on herself to explain to new friends how condescending it was to say I can use chopsticks so well after living in the country for multiple years. Often times its ignorance not malice and people understand. But there are definitely issues you will have if you're a foreigner and you move to Japan.

noboostforyou 4y ago

Riding the bullet train from Kyoto to Osaka, accidentally left my iPhone in the seatback pocket. Didn't realize it until way later, but was able to use find my phone to see that it was still powered on and had made its way all the way to the end of the line. Went to the local train station's lost and found, they called the other station where the phone had been turned in. They shipped it to where we were staying. I can't imagine ever getting my iphone back like that in the US.

Fomite 4y ago
My wife left her Kindle on a United Airlines flight, and two days of searching later, they found it and shipped it to us. A friend left an iPad on a flight. That was shipped back to him as well, albeit with a dick drawn on the screen in sharpie.
- darkwater 4y ago
  You usually (there are some exceptions) don't hop off and on planes. With trains is the norm, so you simply cannot compare the anecdotes.
envp 4y ago
I lost some clothes, sneakers in a duffel bag on my first ride with LIRR from NY Penn. Nothing valuable, but certainly essential. Was told off by the on-duty person to either show them a picture of the bag & items or get new ones lol.
InCityDreams 4y ago
Nark Rober - 200 wallets. https://youtu.be/jnL7sJYblGY https://youtu.be/jnL7sJYblGY
GekkePrutser 4y ago
Fwiw I live in Barcelona, pickpocket capital of Europe due to misguided laws, and I always turn in lost property to the authorities. Over time I've turned in at least 10 ID cards, phones and a bunch of bags. It does happen :) Of course I'd return a wallet as-is as well without dipping in the cash (though I would count it and register the amount on the form when submitting it to the authorities to avoid any 'mislaying') but I've never found one with any in it. Most of the 'lost property' I find here is just discarded by the pickpockets. Also, when there's identifiable information in the wallet I would contact the person on Facebook or LinkedIn if possible. PS the misguided part is that pickpockets get only a fine for thefts below 400€. Even if it's the 5000th time.
tornato7 4y ago
I had a similar thing happen to me in Belize. I left a bag with my $2k DSLR on a park bench and didn’t realize it until hours later. I went back and talked to a couple of the groundskeepers, someone had turned it in and they had it waiting for me, nothing missing.

bravura 4y ago

I am curious for perspectives on this. My immediate guess, based upon dealing with people not Japanese specifically: Japanese culture welcomes outsiders who respect the culture. But once you try to get deep into the fabric of the community (buy property, marry a local, etc.) there is a strong invisible wall of which you were not aware. Most cultures seem to have different ideas of where and how boundaries are created to push away outsiders. The notoriously cold Germans are initially very cold, but once you're on the inside there is complete trust. Meanwhile, the flaky southern California "let's do lunch" thing is an endless series of weak onion-like translucent boundaries and you never can get to the core of things.

Groxx 4y ago
Japan is consistently very welcoming of visitors. It's a fantastic place to be a tourist - clean, safe, welcoming, and top-tier cheap transit in major cities. If you're a permanent resident though, you start grinding against the extremely strong culture of conformity, which you can never quite achieve simply due to biology.
kalleboo 4y ago
I've lived here nearly a decade and never felt any kind of "visitors are fine but don't you try to think you can belong here" kind of vibe. The only "you don't belong here" vibe is from the constant "microaggressions" from being a visible minority - people will see your face and assume you don't speak Japanese, can't use chopsticks, etc etc, but those don't come from malice but rather ignorance. Once I open my mouth and speak Japanese all that mostly goes away. I'm married to a local, have plenty of friends who are married and own property or businesses, no problems of any sort. Get along well with neighbors, business partners, hobby circles. The biggest barrier will be work and business culture, where Japanese will have strict requirements on cultural integration (can't be rude to a client or make them lose faith in your company) and have higher requirements on dedication to work (over health and family) than westerners and that's where I've seen all the friction. edit: I want to clarify that this is the experience of a white westerner. I hear things are very different for people from other parts of Asia (SE Asia/China)

Larrikin 4y ago

As someone who lived in Japan, most everyone is extremely friendly to your face, especially if you are a tourist and demonstrate some ability to speak Japanese or know about the culture. Out right rudeness is extremely rare, especially in the Kantou region. But when you live there you learn about the underlying racism. If you could pass as Japanese, because you are of east Asian descent, you will be fully expected to be completely fluent in the language and culture. If you aren't then you must be extremely dumb, because you are Asian after all. Any insight you might have coming from a western country is disregarded, because why would you know anything the collective society doesn't already know. When I was switching from teaching English to a tech job, I recommended a childhood friend I grew up with in America to take over my position. He was making far less teaching at a much worse eikaiwa school. In Japan, you include a picture with your resume, and when my boss saw that he was Filipino American, he outright said they would prefer someone who looks American and went with a previous coworker I had told him was awful. If you aren't obviously east Asian you get the opposite treatment. You'll constantly be complimented on your ability to do basic things like pick up food with chopsticks and the ability to say hello. If you can have a conversation, there will be constant "compliments" on it. It gets annoying very quickly. But when it rears its ugly head the worse is when you try to do anything real in the country a tourists wouldn't normally do. Lots of people in Tokyo bike to various places, but when I studied there we were warned to either buy a bicycle and make sure its registered or just never ride. Borrowing a friends bicycle was outright forbidden. At some point you will be stopped by the police and if you can't prove you own the bike or have permission to ride it, you will be taken in until they figure out the owner. The few students who did get bikes were stopped atleast once every couple weeks. Depending on perspective the racism can be considered light atleast. Black and brown friends usually would say the annoyances were atleast obvious and evenly applied. The racist landlord will tell you up front that hes going to increase the monthly rent on the apartment you're trying to rent because he "had problems with foreigners" before and you don't have a song and dance with a racist person that really doesn't want to rent to you finding constant issues with your application until you give up. You can quickly scout around to find someone who agrees not to do that or atleast less so. Certain banks will outright deny certain services to foreigners, but if you know the right banks you can get a credit card. The police will bother you, but if you have your gaijin papers they aren't going to beat you or make up charges. For white friends it was usually extremely shocking that such things existed at all and usually were the most vocal about the societal racism they were experiencing for the first time in their lives. But I think it made them more sympathetic generally to people from their home countries. Despite all of that, I loved my years in Japan. A lot of the smaller annoyances usually go away once you actually get to know people and explain the issues you're having. One girlfriend even took it on herself to explain to new friends how condescending it was to say I can use chopsticks so well after living in the country for multiple years. Often times its ignorance not malice and people understand. But there are definitely issues you will have if you're a foreigner and you move to Japan.