201–210 of 279 posts
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I don't know about Japanese culture, but where I'm from accepting the gift would be the polite thing to do (vs rejecting it).
Yeah, spending postage and effort to return a $20 gift card (or whatever it was) is so rude. I'm not sure where in the world that wouldn't come off as rude.
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They're pretty much communal when I visited Tokyo/Kyoto. Pretty much always left the building with a different umbrella than I entered with. Just about everyone uses the same $5-10 black/gray/white/clear umbrella. They all go into the umbrella bucket when you enter a building. Everyone just grabs one on their way out that's close enough to the same as the one the dropped in. Sometimes you leave a building and it's no…
Note that for this to work, people have to only take the umbrella you need. Not grab all of them and sell. BTW: I'm really glad to hear this, because I've been having some regrets about grabbing random umbrellas in Tokyo, because everyone seemed to do it. Glad I did it right after all!
Funny this story should come up now. Two days ago I was on my regular running route and I saw a wallet on the ground. It had 5000 yen (around 50 USD) sticking out of it. The weather was a bit damp and it was far from a police box so I didn't want to risk getting randomly stopped and searched on my way to hand it in so I just put it on a fence post and went on my way. I run the same route everyday, so when I ran the n…
Is getting randomly stopped and searched a concern?
I found this similar mentality in Korea where you can leave your laptop, phone, etc. at a cafe completely exposed on a table while you go to the restroom or even out to lunch. When you come back your stuff will still be there. As I live in NYC, this completely blew my mind and I still felt that anxiety and awkwardness just leaving my stuff to go use the restroom. Near guaranteed theft in NYC lol. --- And to add anoth…
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There have been 559,789 naturalizations total from 1952 to 2018: http://www.moj.go.jp/content/001180510.pdf Many of those have probably died by now, but likely not without leaving a few descendants. So there may be a million or so Japanese citizens with a family background involving migration within the last few generations. Ainu, Ryukyuans and Burakumin should probably also be counted as "non-homogeneous", even thou…
besides from naturalizations, there's also quite few half-japanese people that acquire citizenship by birth-right. Although I'm pretty sure the wide consensus in Japan is that half-japanese is considered non-japanese, so the number would go down a little bit more.
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Is it possible the social support structure, education, etc are creating a society where unfortunate people don't have to steal/pawn to make a living?
I'm sure it plays a role, but there are countries with similar wealth and support systems, but so many things (like the lost property example) are unique to Japan.
When I was living in Japan, i once lost my wallet on a bicycle ride. It must have fallen out of my pocket somewhere on the route i was taking. I didn't notice it was missing until I got home, got my keys out to open the door and realised the wallet was missing. I went back out on the bike and retraced my route but couldnt see the wallet annoyed that I would have to cancel cards, get a new ID card. After I got home ag…
I experienced this while visiting Japan. While doing a transfer on the Shinkansen in Hiroshima, I left my camera bag at a noodle kiosk on the platform (around $3k worth of equipment). Didn't realize it until 2 hours after getting on the next train. When we arrived at our destination, I told my friend we were meeting (a Japanese native) what happened, and she reassured me that it would be right where I left it (said s…
On the other hand, the Japanese are inveterate umbrella thieves. So much so that you will find locking umbrella racks in many buildings. The pressure has to go somewhere.
It’s hard to tell which one is yours and it basically becomes an umbrella share pool. No big deal.
I’ve also had cases where I was caught in the rain and people tried to give me their umbrella.
I experienced this while visiting Japan. While doing a transfer on the Shinkansen in Hiroshima, I left my camera bag at a noodle kiosk on the platform (around $3k worth of equipment). Didn't realize it until 2 hours after getting on the next train. When we arrived at our destination, I told my friend we were meeting (a Japanese native) what happened, and she reassured me that it would be right where I left it (said s…
On the other hand, the Japanese are inveterate umbrella thieves. So much so that you will find locking umbrella racks in many buildings. The pressure has to go somewhere.
Said another way: let go of the notion of “your” umbrella, and just accept that when you do occasionally purchase one, you’re inserting an umbrella into a broader system.
I’ve had people come running out of their houses to hand me umbrellas on a rainy day; they really are a social good.