Things I would ban in Japan

1 - Cyclists using mobile phones

I would prefer to ban cyclists from using the pavements but that's as likely as David Beckham coming the new prime minister of Japan. However some cyclists are a menace, especially ones that cycle, balance a kid and shopping on the bike, talk on a mobile phone and hold an umbrella at the same time. I've been hit by a cyclist, although she was cute so I didn't make a fuss about it but she was cycling and texting at the same time oh and cycling on a 2ft pavement...

2 - Stop shop assistants from shouting basically "THANK YOU" when you leave the shop.

The person who served you should say thank you and what not but when the entire shop shouts it out at various loudness and intervals it just makes you want to leave the shop a lot lot faster.

3 - Pop socks, mini stockings, thights leggings

Now Japanese women are some of the cutest women in the world but there is a trend to look as sexy as your grandmother by them not wearing socks, stockings or tights but those horrible pop socks that come up to the knee or below it, more horrible are the legging tights that show off far to much ankle and leg. >_< Please look great girls and wear something that makes you look sexy and hot.

4 - Cigarette and Beer machines that stop working just before midnight

Why? Why the hell do these machines stop working between midnight and 6am? I'm told it's to stop kids from using them, but quite honestly if a kid wants to use them, then they are more likely to use it in the morning, during the day or even during the evening, a lot of these machines have little people near them during the day anyway.

5 - Game Collectors

Not all of them, just the ones that don't attempt to learn any Japanese and speak English to the assistants because 'They learn some English', the ones that get every copy of a game to find out which one is the best, the ones that go 'Oooh and ahhh' when they see a Sharp Twin Famicom or a Neo Geo system, the greedy ones that buy stuff just for ebay, the ones that try and barter (esp in English...) and keep attempting to, when the assistant is not going to give you a discount and the ones that say '$30 for this game, feck that I'll play it via an emulator on my Xbox/PC/etc'.

Feel free to add more or even comment...

 

no comments on this. but Q4 i'm asking myself for years now. i'm aware, that it's for preventing kids buy cigarettes, but as you already mentioned, they would buy them during the day or at least when it turns to night, which is very early here in japan around pm 7~8 o'clock, even in highest summer time. the only different between 8 o'clock and after 11 o'clock is, there're less people on the street at that time.

 

i have one:

ban loud-as-fuck shitty-ass j-pop music in the skiing slope, seriously, what the fuck!! the most annoying shit ever. AARGH!
in fact ban all kinds of J music, it really, REALLY sucks, only decent act i heard during my 5 weks in japan was melt banana :shrug: and thats just because i went to their concert..

i kinda liked the gamecollectors in japan (i guess i was one of them) some were funny as hell, this one american dude (looked mid 20s) in superpotato proclaimed to the whole building that "oh my fucking god they have a boxed super famicom!" and "holy shit they have marvel vs capcom 2 AND thirdstrike!!!" (every time he did a nigh-on perfect home alone face)
on both occations he was accompanied by this annoying swedish game collector laughing his ass off at some other point in the store

others were stereotypical japanophile nerds with bad acne, pants up to their torso or long stripy hair draped over their favourite washedout 80s-metal tshirt.

oh snap i remembered another, this one guy in trader 2 (very bad acne) went over to the idol movies and pretty much bought one of each he must have picked up ATLEAST 50 DVDs (he had conciderable problems carrying them all to the counter) concidering pretty much everything in japan is porn i dont understand those shitty idol movies at all?

 

Well, i didn't went to Japan since 1999, but what happened to me is the opposite.
I was speaking to the clerk in japanese, asking if a game was available or not in japanese, and the guy answered me with hands, making a cross with his arms, and saying out loudly "SOLLLLY SOLD OUTTTOOO"

I asked him why he's answering me in english when i'm talking to him in japanese, how rude that is.
Besides, why i'd unsertand english?
Do all gaijins are OBVIOUSLY americans or english-speaking ppl? Jeez.

 

Speaker trucks of all kinds. They are incredibly annoying. Especially when they make the suburban rounds at 8 in the morning during election time.

 

I hate those fuckers ! I shout out the window telling them to shut up. That should be against the law ! It's a breach of a persons peace and quiet.

Yakumo

 

personally i would ban japanese languege

it was sad not being able to give trouble and make friends with people there because they can't speak english

LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST ORDOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

how correct you are! and as well as all the ubernoizy bike gangs which always make their tours at am 3 o'clock around quite places. sometime i wish i have a brick on my balcony to throw after them. those fu**ing arseholes, all of them!!!

 

I would not ban anything, as I have long since grown out of that "change Japan phase". I think I did on my 2nd month in Japan. Every little deranged piece adds to the fucked up whole. BUT...

I would definitely ban people who try to impose further restrictions on cyclists. We help the environment by not riding in cars. We keep the trains just a little less crowded. We deserve all the space we want and then some. Besides, I cycle 10x better than most people walk, in full 180 degree peripheral vision. I can fly through the park and turn on a dime to miss an uncautious child. However, these new parking restrictions in Shibuya/Shinjuku/Harajuku (my fucking neighborhood basically) are really pissing me off.

Not sure about your neighborhood but it's 11PM in Tokyo (at least it was when I was smoking). The reason? There's not enough adults out at those wee hours to prevent kids from buying them. (This is more geared towards neighborhoods than the city). What parents let their high school kids out that late is beyond me, but hey.

Wow... never seen these people. Not one. I've seen a few tourists, but that's it.

I was at Gala Yusawa one time and they were playing offsensive satanic death metal. F-bombs, demons, you name it... all at about 2PM on a Saturday afternoon. I couldn't believe it.

That's actually a Japanese phrase. Just happens to be derived from English.

You know, I can handle the politicans, the christians, and even the conservatives b/c they blare their speakers from the street. Gets noisey on narrow streets, but it's liveable. It's the fuck tards that stand on the sidewalk screaming about how cheap their products are. Those are the guys I could do without.

The noise pollution is a joke. There's no question about it. I remember they were doing construction right outside my fucking apartment until 2AM for a few weeks one time. This was ages ago though, and rarely slept anyway at that point in my life.

I guess the thing I hate the most that you can't really ban is that manufacturers of consumables like to prick tease the general public. I can't tell you how many products (drinks mainly, but some snacks) I've fallen in love with, only to have blue balls next time I go to the store b/c they're gone. I remember these Camabert Chips (crisps for you English bastards). They rocked. Then one day, poof! Gone. It's like they say, "Well, we're making too much money off of this. Let's stop making it". My foresight tells me one day CC Lemon is not going to be around. I will cry.

 

I think this is precisely how they train Japanese people into being ravenous consumers.

It might be a little boring, but back in Canada if I were in the mood for something like uh... Dr. Pepper, I knew that I could go to any supermarket in any city and get it. I wouldn't have to wait until the first 4 weeks of summer, or travel to a faraway city because that's that region's contrived "specialty", or other bullshit like that.

grumble grumble grumble...

 

Thanks for that! :lol: First time I come to the States & go order a nice plate of Fish'n'chips, only to end up with fish & a bag of ready salted crisps? WTF? Don't even get me started on Buns vs Biscuits & Biscuits vs Crackers... :110:

Steering back on topic - if I could ask for something to be banned, it'd be the occasional run-ins with xenophobia. I know 'foreigners' in general can be a pain in the rear, especially when they make no attempt to fit in/work with the local culture, but it pisses me off when I see cases of 'all getting tarred with the same brush', just because of how someone looks. First time I went to Japan was with a bunch of language students, along with a couple of native Japanese guides - to save some cash, we all stayed in a 'businessmans hotel' in Tokyo. I was staying 1 more week in Tokyo than the others & the hotel clerk was Ok with this when asked. Just when the others were about to leave, the hotel clerk then on duty (different guy, who I'd not met before then) took one look at me, & tried to kick me out saying "Japanese Only". I knew just enough Japanese to try to explain that I was already booked in, but he wasn't having any of it. It took one of our Japanese guides & the fortunate arrival on shift of the original clerk to get him to honor my booking. Oddly enough, he was very courteous to me after that, but he still booted out every other gaijin who stepped foot in the lobby...

[edit: fixed some of my crappy spelling]

 

A lot of time xenophobia is langauge-barrier-based. Can't blame them... it's a pain in the ass sometimes. But, still doesn't really excuse it. The sad thing? The states is just like that. How often will someone not sit by a black person on the bus/train?

 

I know just what you mean there ! Why do they do it? I just can not understand japanese companies. They make something that's so go then pooooffff it's gone forever ! Or another one I hate is the so called limited edition crap when they actually released the same item year after year in a new tartted up pack or add a cheery to it or some other crap.

Yakumo

PS: Ban Meiji, Lotte and Girico from making piss poor thin chocolate bars that are way over priced. Bring in Cadburies and mars !

 

You have Snickers and Kit Kat (including Green Tea and Cherry flavours that you ain't going to get in London) what more could you want?

 

Yeah, great two ! Snickers taste different as well. To be honest I'm accustom to the Japanese one now but can't help feeling it's smaller. In Tokyo I used to buy maltesers (sp?) 5 years ago. Do they still have them? What we need is British Cadburys chocolate and Mars bars ! None of this Australian import stuff caked with more sugar than necessary and none of that 99% sugar 1% coco American crap (Sorry guys but your chocolate sucks ass)

Anyway, on topic they should ban ALL TV Talents :lol: Yep and while they are at it sack all the bloody TV show producers.

Yakumo

 

I'll tell you what though. Alforte are the bomb diggity.

 

Luckily, they recently banned the use of large black coaches by Uyoku movements in Tokyo, and I think there is a limit on the amount of noise they can produce too.
They still come swarming into the city with black vans and their moronic slogans though...

 

A friend of mine beamed a bunch of those buses w/ snowballs one time. Funny as shit. I don't know if he realized they beat people down.

 

They do? When I was at Yasukuni last summer I saw one of those black, flag-toting vans riding by, it scared the crap out of my Japanese-majoring friend but I decided not to care and took a few pics of it. It drove around and stopped, a few people came out, looking exactly like middle-aged family men with a boring job in accounting. They even chatted with the (abundant) police!