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74 points ilamont | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.482s | source
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forgotoldacc ◴[] 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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srvmshr ◴[] No.44385812[source]
> Some people living in places that have become tourist areas are putting up signs announcing their home toilets are not for public use.

I read that on r/Tokyo Reddit as well a while back. Quite shocking. It was some person complaining living near a large public park (possibly Shinjuku or Inokashira) about his personal premises being violated because toilet queues were quite long & people kept knocking at their door. Not sure if we both are referring to the same incident?

[For reference to others, there are enough portable toilets in these public parks to deal with tourist surge, but obviously no arrangement can handle 25000+ visitors everyday without having queues]

More ridiculous stories have popped up once in a while in japan tourist subreddits. This sakura blossom season, a British tourist couple were seeking legal recourse to avoid detention and move back to their home country ASAP after running over an elderly woman with the rental car. Some people probably don't take consequences in a tourist destination seriously.

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MichaelZuo ◴[] No.44389291[source]
The latter case sounds more like mental derangement under stress.

I really doubt even lower ranking actual diplomats could reasonably expect to get away with running over an elderly Japanese grandma in Japan.

Nearly all the smaller countries would waive even up to a minister-counsellor’s immunity in that scenario.

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1. traceroute66 ◴[] No.44389610[source]
> Nearly all the smaller countries would waive even up to a minister-counsellor’s immunity in that scenario.

Sadly, if the UK's experience is anything to go by, if it is a US government worker / diplomat they would be on the first plane home[1].

I fear it would be no different in Japan. The US would get away with it. Even more so in the Trump era where he would probably make some dumb threats to the country to force their hand.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Harry_Dunn

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2. MichaelZuo ◴[] No.44389879[source]
Well yeah that’s why I said smaller countries… the big countries have minister-counsellors, sometimes even attaches, that are really significant people, and might get away with it.

Especially if it’s a cover for their actual position with a much higher rank.

3. robk ◴[] No.44391232[source]
She was clearly an intelligence officer not a low level diplomat or staffer