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It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

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Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#61

Post by Aeolun »

wirthjason wrote: post #27
rgovostes wrote: post #12

Outside many establishments in Japan you will find an umbrella rack full of nearly identical translucent white umbrellas (the style sold for a few hundred yen at any convenience store). Many of these have been inadvertently left behind, the rain having stopped while the owner was inside. Once I found myself in the reverse situation, sitting in a friend's bar when a downpour started. I asked him if I could take one of…

Speak the truth! If you have a white handle umbrella it’s a “give a penny, take a penny” situation. Countless times I’ve had a newish one taken and the only one left is some crappy junk that’s rusted out as half the spokes broke. I get it though. They are all similar (even though they are not, some still have the plastic wrap or price tag on the handle). Mistakes are mistakes. What really pisses me off is when you ta…

All my white umbrellas get a blue-red tag stuck to their handle. It serves the double purpose of making them easy to identify for me, and so ‘different’ to other people they wouldn’t want to use it over a plain white one.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#62

Post by brabel »

dr_dshiv wrote: post #51

I left my bag on a train the first day I arrived in Japan. I had fallen asleep and woke up to a conductor shouting at me. I grabbed my backpack and hurried out of the train. But, as soon as the doors shut, I realized my other bag was inside. I went to the train authority and registered the lost item and everyone assured me that it would be found, no problem. I called back several times over the next 10 days but it ne…

> “it must have been a Korean.”

Everybody here is basically making the point that Japanese are extremely unlikely to keep items they find, which is basically as racist as saying "other nationalities are more likely to keep stuff", except that in this particular case, the person singled out a particular nationality instead of generalizing - I find generalizing the whole rest of the world even worse than doing that.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#63

Post by Aeolun »

skhr0680 wrote: post #50
cko wrote: post #24

I loved Tokyo when I visited especially because of the safety. A coworker happened to be there with me at the same time and we even joked about moving there. I understand they have a tough immigration system. Short of getting a job there, how can a US citizen live there?

> I understand they have a tough immigration system. It's a joke (in a good way) compared to other developed nations, the whole process costs $50 or so. > Short of getting a job there, how can a US citizen live there? Be in the military, get posted to the Japanese office of your company, get married to a Japanese, or have a stack of cash

Yeah, getting refugee status is impossible, but it’s really easy to immigrate as long as you can get someone to hire you.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#64

Post by yaysyu »

tluyben2 wrote: post #48
ehnto wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's my anecdote: I lost my phone in Japan once, in Tokyo. I was steaming after a night of karaoke and somewhere between the bar, taxi and my hotel, I'd lost my phone. I wandered down to the street at 3am, retracing my steps, and a police officer noticed me and asked what I was looking for. He pointed me back to the hotel reception where where we got on the phone to the taxi company, and then directly onto the driv…

> I'd just dropped it under my bag We (wife and me) had a, now hilarious, run through Melbourne Chasing my iPhone which was ‘stolen’ when we were in a restaurant ; we used the Apple find my phone feature and the phone kept moving all through Melbourne. We had told hotel staff to open up a room we ‘knew’ it was in (luckily they did not), we chased a truck, etc etc. It was in our hotel room, under my bag all that time;…

As a resident of Melbourne, I have the same bad experience with GPS signals in the CBD. Something to do with the narrow laneways as well as the tall buildings obscuring the GPS signal

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#65

Post by LatteLazy »

I lost my passport, my copy of lonely planet, my rail pass and about 400usd in yen.

For less than an hour.

I left it at a station. Boarded the train, realised I didn't have it when I got to the other end (and couldn't find the pass to exit). The station staff offered to give me some cash to help me get to my destination and it was no problem I didn't have the pass because I was "obviously respectable".

Then they came back to tell me my things had been found. I asked if I could take the train back to pick it up.

No need! The driver is bringing it to me on the next train, he'll be 30minutes. Please enjoy some free coffee in this cafe and wait.

What a country.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#66

Post by ehnto »

stevekemp wrote: post #53
ehnto wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here's my anecdote: I lost my phone in Japan once, in Tokyo. I was steaming after a night of karaoke and somewhere between the bar, taxi and my hotel, I'd lost my phone. I wandered down to the street at 3am, retracing my steps, and a police officer noticed me and asked what I was looking for. He pointed me back to the hotel reception where where we got on the phone to the taxi company, and then directly onto the driv…

> I was steaming after a .. Every now and again I get a feeling of nostalgia for the Scotland, and I have to say reading that reminded me so strongly of being there it was unreal. You could be from anywhere, but it's fascinating what even a single word of slang or dialect will trigger memories and emotions.

That's interesting, I'm from Aus but I'd say we get a lot of our drinking culture directly from the monarchy haha. I've noticed more of it around the city areas of Australia though, out in the sticks we'd have a "coupla beers" or "tinnies" but in the city it's often "out for a few pints" instead.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#67

Post by nnoitra »

cute_boi wrote: post #39
axiolite wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Japan has a strong culture of pacifism too. What happened 80 years ago doesn't change the facts on the ground, today.

But, they still don't acknowledge the crime and are oblivious to the situation. I see this as hypocrisy. I remember the following punch line from one of Japan's anime :). "To protect the world, we must accept our sins and our accompanying ruin."

Are you really cute? x_x

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#68

Post by Barrin92 »

brabel wrote: post #62
dr_dshiv wrote: post #51

I left my bag on a train the first day I arrived in Japan. I had fallen asleep and woke up to a conductor shouting at me. I grabbed my backpack and hurried out of the train. But, as soon as the doors shut, I realized my other bag was inside. I went to the train authority and registered the lost item and everyone assured me that it would be found, no problem. I called back several times over the next 10 days but it ne…

> “it must have been a Korean.” Everybody here is basically making the point that Japanese are extremely unlikely to keep items they find, which is basically as racist as saying "other nationalities are more likely to keep stuff", except that in this particular case, the person singled out a particular nationality instead of generalizing - I find generalizing the whole rest of the world even worse than doing that.

Not really. It's one thing to point out that Japan has a unique culture, which is very obvious. It's an entirely other thing to blame foreigners once that culture doesn't work as expected.

In particular because Koreans have very strong lost and found systems and high trust as well. Blaming Koreans is a reflex given the strong anti-Korean sentiment in Japan.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#69

Post by tluyben2 »

yaysyu wrote: post #64
tluyben2 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd just dropped it under my bag We (wife and me) had a, now hilarious, run through Melbourne Chasing my iPhone which was ‘stolen’ when we were in a restaurant ; we used the Apple find my phone feature and the phone kept moving all through Melbourne. We had told hotel staff to open up a room we ‘knew’ it was in (luckily they did not), we chased a truck, etc etc. It was in our hotel room, under my bag all that time;…

As a resident of Melbourne, I have the same bad experience with GPS signals in the CBD. Something to do with the narrow laneways as well as the tall buildings obscuring the GPS signal

It kept bouncing between Russell and Lonsdale, the entire roads; we saw the signal moving down and up Lonsdale and then into Rusell, sometimes going into shops or hotels. The crafty squire guy was the first one who said that gps doesn’t really work in the center. Hope covid allows us to visit again soon; during covid many of my friends there moved up north to Queensland for more and cheaper space.

Edit; sorry, I always berate people for the word friends (because people use the word for people they have met once and say crap like; I invited 1000 close friends to my wedding etc) and now I do it myself; I have 1 friend and a bunch of ‘personal acquaintances’ in Melbourne.

Re: It’s almost impossible to lose anything in Japan

#70

Post by hohoemi8 »

brabel wrote: post #62
dr_dshiv wrote: post #51

I left my bag on a train the first day I arrived in Japan. I had fallen asleep and woke up to a conductor shouting at me. I grabbed my backpack and hurried out of the train. But, as soon as the doors shut, I realized my other bag was inside. I went to the train authority and registered the lost item and everyone assured me that it would be found, no problem. I called back several times over the next 10 days but it ne…

> “it must have been a Korean.” Everybody here is basically making the point that Japanese are extremely unlikely to keep items they find, which is basically as racist as saying "other nationalities are more likely to keep stuff", except that in this particular case, the person singled out a particular nationality instead of generalizing - I find generalizing the whole rest of the world even worse than doing that.

>which is basically as racist as saying "other nationalities are more likely to keep stuff"

You can call it racist if you want but it's absolutely true.

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