things you wanted to know about Japan or maybe not...

Yeah, the Japanese homeless are pretty nice people. When I was there with a friend, we had a pretty long English conversation with a homeless man in Ueno park, and in Ichikawa there used to be a guy that we saw twice a day (he "lived" in the street between the gaijin house and the train station) and he always waved at us. One day I waved back, he waved back and then I waved back again - and he looked away. When I walked past him he mumbled "bakabakabaka" :smt043

 

When I go back, I think I should pack a tent for Ueno park :smt043 Beats hotel prices

 

what's wrong with capsule hotel?
only used once and that was years ago... but it was fun experience...

I've been thinking of checking out those love hotel next time we visit tokyo... he he

one thing puzzles me though is finding sauna bath place is freaking hard - sure I was in Osaka at that time but only place I could find was at near Namba(?) station... whereas in Seoul this thing is almost every where? :-( Umm.. does this mean Korean love to bath together and Japanese much prefer in private??? :smt043 I'm not talking about onsen... but the publicj bath with two or more sauna/steam room and etc.

 

So how do they stop people under 18 of buying in vending machines? The authorities don't care if underaged people buy liquor/cigarettes or the kids respect the law and don't buy?

 

Straight from the site above, "if you're old enough to pay, you're old enough to play" :smt023

 

Which station is that? The only "don't" signs I've seen are the "groping is a crime" signs, and the very recent (koban only) don't do drugs signs. The only smoking is bad I've ever seen printed is on the mandatory one on tobacco ads, which says, "Smoking is hazardous to your health, so be careful not to smoke too much." Slightly different from the UK's, "Tobacco kills."

Kids buy from the machines, but it's not a national phenomenon like you'd think. If the police catch them smoking, they'll get a lecture, and likely call their parents. The machines shut down at 23:00 each day when they streets aren't heavily populated... and the kids are at home. A pain for smokers that want smokes after 23:00.

Sorry, but this is about as far from the truth as you can get. If you're 35 or older, you're basically fucked. No Japanese company will hire you -- hence, the homeless problem. While most of them don't booze, and aren't there b/c of such substances, "they're there by choice" is a bit near-sighted. This is a country that traditionally does not help poor people, much less homeless people, and as stated before -- doesn't hire people over a certain age. Bubble bursts, people get laid off, lots of people don't have work. Simple math. This ugly truth materialized for me when I typed in "volunteer" in google.jp -- all the hits are for old folks homes.

I think a select few (that are qualified) can get odd jobs here and there, but about only 1 time out of 1000 times it's enough to get off the streets. No homeless shelters, and no cheap places to live. Way eaiser to get a job in the states. Just hang out at a gas station w/ the Mexicans and wait for someone to hire you.

 

Huh, well that's what I remember, the green-and-white signs with "carrying a cigarette near a children's face is dangerous", "cigarettes in the trash are a fire hazard" and 1001 others being everywhere... <scratch head smiley>

 

Wow, *slightly* different to what we get here - well, for starters advertising tobacco products was banned totally a few years ago, and all packets have big black-on-white writing taking up about a third of the box, much like everywhere else in the EU, with things like how smoking kills, gives you lung cancer, heart disease, can make you sterile, etc. And the only ad's on TV we get are about not smoking - showing some blood clot in someone's brain, and pushing all this yellow crap out of some 35-year-old's aorta. Delightful stuff. Ireland's pretty bad when it comes to smokers, but the percentage here is probably nowhere near Denmark or most of the Far East. A lot of my family used to smoke, but they've nearly all given up due to having children and stuff.

And on the subject of homeless people in Japan, I remember seeing some documentary about how the economy there's fuckered on Channel 4 a while back, and it showed some homeless people in Osaka under a bridge... with rather nice tents... and pocket TVs...

 

Actually, I'd say that sounds like Los Angeles.

 

A Japanese would never agree with that, nor does National Geographic (on homeless in japan)

 

well... in Korea I heard once passed 40 the company pressured you till you resigned... :smt067

 

Semi-OT: Which issue of NG was that in, Kyuusaku? I've got access to a decent amount of back issues and would like to check that article out.

 

I'm not sure, its from 2001/2 I think, I don't have immediate access to it, it's bedside reading material at my uncles house :\ I'll look online sometime soon and see if I recognize the cover.

Edit: check out this if you have it:

http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y02Y5161033Y9354916/058-6050421-7235219


Could be this one too, I remember the cover:

http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y02Y1047791Y6838252/058-6050421-7235219

 

Awesome, thanks. God bless university library archives. :-D

 

LOL -- isn't that like Japan. It's okay to smoke them, just don't start fires with them. :smt030 I've still not seen anything like that, except when advertising something like a portable ashtray.

Source? I can point you to a park full of Japanese wearing my old clothes that would agree with it. What I stated is pretty much Japan 101 -- you learn that after teaching about 3 months... or of course if you go out there and give them clothes and food you'd also hear something similar.

 

Oops