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Getting by on the Generosity of Strangers in Japan

(theworld.org)
70 points ilamont | 4 comments | 23 Jun 25 22:03 UTC | HN request time: 1.801s | source
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forgotoldacc ◴[26 Jun 25 09:03 UTC] No.44385543[source]▶
One consequence of "Japanese hospitality" being widely known is that there are now swathes of tourists visiting with the expectation of getting their own "magical experience".

Some people living in places that have become tourist areas are putting up signs announcing their home toilets are not for public use. Because apparently some tourists have said things like "When I needed to use the bathroom and there was nowhere else around, I knocked on a random person's door and they were kind enough to let me use it!" So now a non-zero number of people go there with the expectation that they can (and possibly should) do the same.

Tourists used to be a novelty to Japanese. Now with over 40 million projected for this year, a massive rise from about 6 million in 2012, a large number of them taking extended vacations (in contrast to Euros who might hop a border for a weekend and boost tourist counts quickly), people are getting quickly burnt out with the entitlement many of them exhibit. To tourists, it's a magical, unique vacation and they must have the Ghibli experience someone else posted about. To locals, countless people are harassing you everyday demanding unreasonable things.

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corimaith ◴[26 Jun 25 10:32 UTC] No.44385995[source]▶
The usual this is why we can't have nice things. Hospitality only thrives when it is not abused as an expectation rather than a privilege.
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1. anal_reactor ◴[26 Jun 25 11:04 UTC] No.44386166[source]▶
The more I interact with people the less I think of an average person. Case in point - my neighborhood has a huge trash problem. People just dump it on the street. Why some communities consider that normal behavior is beyond me.
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2. graemep ◴[26 Jun 25 11:13 UTC] No.44386207[source]▶
> Why some communities consider that normal behavior is beyond me.

Because they are not real communities. People living in the same place but with no sense of connection or shared identity or shared interests.

3. mc32 ◴[26 Jun 25 12:39 UTC] No.44386845[source]▶
Those humans are creatures and lack a bit of that which characterizes civilization. They exist in all countries and within all ethnicities, sometimes to varying degrees, but they are everywhere.
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4. K0balt ◴[26 Jun 25 13:54 UTC] No.44387453[source]▶
A failure of inculturation. By default, humans are just clever apes. Language and culture transforms us into thinking beings that inhabit a worldview beyond the sensorium, of potentials, of possibilities, of hidden truths.

The inculturated self is meant to be in charge of the animal self. We see this in the inherent duality presented in language: “self control” implying a controller and one to be controlled; getting in in touch with yourself, implying a self and an estranged self… there are lots of these that explicitly call out the duality of the human experience.

This internal hierarchy is instilled in childhood with varying degrees of success. Some fail almost completely and live a life of reactivity, conspicuously devoid of consequential consideration. Some revert to the animal self through drug addiction. There are many maladies to describe the failure of character that is seen when inculturation breaks down.