[HN Gopher] Walking Tokyo for Seven Days
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Walking Tokyo for Seven Days
Author : cmod
Score : 135 points
Date : 2022-08-11 02:50 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (craigmod.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (craigmod.com)
| martin_henk wrote:
| Good plan. I think Shibuya changed the most from a bird's eye
| view. But there's new developments all over as usual.
| billybuckwheat wrote:
| Just goes to show that there's always something new to discover,
| even in a place you've called home for over 20 years.
| samtimalsina wrote:
| As an immigrant who walked everywhere where I grew up, this is
| one of the things I miss the most about living in America.
| Walkable neighborhoods are rare in most parts of the US, let
| alone the cities. I wish we had more places to walk. Sigh.
| nico wrote:
| Around where I live, there are large residential areas with no
| sidewalks at all. It blew my mind when we first moved here. I
| still don't understand the reasoning behind it. Some of those
| areas are in the hills with winding roads, it's pretty scary
| walking there, having to be constantly on alert.
| ghaff wrote:
| This is not just a US thing. I have definitely been outside
| of towns in the UK for example where there are no sidewalks
| and walking along the narrow country lanes with zero shoulder
| is scarier than most places I've experienced in the US.
| mellavora wrote:
| I remember when I was younger, that in many suburban
| neighborhoods it was common (i.e. expected) that everyone would
| walk around the block after dinner. You'd see all these couples
| walking slowing, chatting with neighbors, and basically showing
| their face.
|
| That probably died in the 90s.
| czstar wrote:
| In the U.S. walking has even been criminalized to some extent
| for those in out groups. For instance, if 4 black teenage boys
| walk together in an affluent, white neighborhood they can
| expect police to stop them. Walking is so rare that a small
| group of people walking together is seen as something out of
| the ordinary. I think it's bad for society to be set up this
| way.
|
| https://illinoislawreview.org/print/vol-2017-no-3/the-crimin...
| bigDinosaur wrote:
| Well the issue can be even more profound than that: areas
| that actually physically cannot be walked at all (excluding
| technicalities like walking on busy roads). On the bright
| side, you can't be arrested for walking somewhere that
| doesn't even let you walk there.
| Aeolun wrote:
| That is something I've never encountered anywhere except
| bridges. Just because there's no road there doesn't mean
| you can't walk (unless the space next to the road is
| air/water).
| ryukafalz wrote:
| > unless the space next to the road is air/water
|
| Or rock.
| kordlessagain wrote:
| Can you please cite some sources where it has been
| criminalized (made illegal) as you claim?
| syzar wrote:
| There's a link in the post you responded to. That's the
| source you are looking for.
| Ferrotin wrote:
| That link is not the source.
| woweoe wrote:
| Yes but that is nothing to do with walkable cities.
| syzar wrote:
| A second order effect of criminalization of walking is a
| culture that does not value walkability. People are so
| accustomed to non walkability and so unaccustomed to groups
| of people strolling about that it does not even occur to
| them to think about what a loss this is.
| woweoe wrote:
| But this assertion was more about racism than walkable
| cities.
| kevin_thibedeau wrote:
| The claim still works without the element of racism. In
| the extreme car-centric areas of the US you're regarded a
| weirdo for walking anywhere by members of your own race.
| bsedlm wrote:
| of course it does have to do with walkabale cities.
|
| to walk in a city that is not set-up for walking is clearly
| an odd thing to do.
|
| if the city were set-up for walking and people walked it, a
| group of 4 persons walking wouldn't be an oddity
| woweoe wrote:
| You could bet you that those four people would have the
| same thing happen to them in Japan's walkable cities as
| well. It is nothing to do with walkable cities.
| bsedlm wrote:
| at least have enough courage to admit that 4 teenagers
| would make you nervous. there's nothing wrong with being
| alert. teenagers can be dangerous and unpredictable. the
| dividing line IMO, would be behaving preemptively in such
| a scenario.
| _se wrote:
| 4 teenagers would not make me nervous. Happens many times
| per day for many of us. Parent comments are talking about
| something different than "common sense" or "being alert".
| Profiling is a real thing that many people have to deal
| with.
| verall wrote:
| I walked a block with a friend yesterday next to a relatively
| busy feeder and someone in a passing car screamed at us. It's
| not a rare occurrence, I have plenty of memories of walking
| to the nearby gas station convenience store as a 13 year old
| and the same happening.
|
| People really underestimate how antisocial people are to
| walkers in the US.
| psychomugs wrote:
| There's something dehumanizing about seeing most others on
| your commute as large metal fortresses instead of actual
| human beings.
| wccrawford wrote:
| I've been learning Japanese for a couple decades now, and I've
| _never_ heard a cafe called a "kissa". Always "kissaten". It
| feels like the author just make up their own slang for another
| language, and that doesn't feel good at all.
|
| In addition, they wrote a book about visiting a bunch of cafes,
| and then they're going to leave that book in random other cafes
| that didn't get put into the book? I can't imagine I'd be very
| happy about that as a cafe owner. Especially since the book was
| written by a foreigner (gaijin), and the Japanese still aren't
| very cool with foreigners, in general. "No gaijin allowed" is
| still a fairly common sign for some businesses, as I understand
| it. It seems rather tone deaf.
| presentation wrote:
| People say kissa all the time in Japanese. Source: I live in
| Japan and speak Japanese with Japanese people.
| woweoe wrote:
| I also live in Japan but I wouldn't use the term "kissa"
| outside MangaKissa or a traditional coffee shop (and who goes
| to a traditional coffee shop on a normal occasion?)?
| Aeolun wrote:
| > who goes to a traditional coffee shop on a normal
| occasion
|
| There's like 3 on the way to the station, presumably _some_
| people go there on the regular.
| woweoe wrote:
| If you live in an area populated by older people then
| yes.
| kipari wrote:
| Consider reading up on the author. He's been living in Japan
| for large parts of his life.
| impendia wrote:
| > "No gaijin allowed" is still a fairly common sign for some
| businesses, as I understand it.
|
| I've lived in Japan for two years, been back several times
| since, and traveled extensively within the country -- and I've
| never seen any such sign, nor asked to leave any business
| because I was a foreigner.
| xyzzy_plugh wrote:
| They're less and less common but they very much still exist,
| especially small bars. I haven't encountered any outside of
| Tokyo though.
| tjpnz wrote:
| I've been here seven years. Can't say I've seen it either.
| The server industry has been nothing but hospitable.
| woutr_be wrote:
| I didn't see a sign at the time, but I've been asked to leave
| after the server confirmed we couldn't read Japanese.
| Honestly didn't think much of it, just assumed it was because
| the menu was only in Japanese.
| Morgawr wrote:
| https://jisho.org/search/%E5%96%AB%E8%8C%B6 ?
| thematrixturtle wrote:
| _Kissa_ is a common short form, particularly for themed cafes:
| jazz kissa, manga kissa, maid kissa, etc.
|
| In general, nearly any common long word in Japan gets truncated
| down to three morae. Kissaten -> kissa, McDonalds ->
| Makudonarudo -> makudo, Brad Pitt -> Buraddo Pitto -> burapii,
| etc.
| woweoe wrote:
| I currently live in Japan and I have never come across a jazz
| kissa, though Jazz outlets do exist in some
| multicultural/expat areas they aim themselves for foreign
| clientele. Also kissa is a rarely used term in my opinion
| with other slang being preferred outside Man Hua Chi Cha .
| Morgawr wrote:
| > McDonalds -> Makudonarudo -> makudo
|
| Fun fact, makudo (makudo) is how they call it in kansai
| (osaka, etc). makku (matsuku) is how they call it in kanto
| (tokyo, etc).
| robocat wrote:
| I didn't know what kansai/kanto were, so here's an article
| I liked explaining one view of the differences:
| https://www.tofugu.com/japan/kansai-vs-kanto/
| Aeolun wrote:
| Oh, I was going to correct him. Never heard it called
| anything other than makku.
|
| But yeah, Kanto ;)
| hinoki wrote:
| Probably because Google says "Chi Cha " translates to "coffee
| shop"?
|
| > "No gaijin allowed" is still a fairly common sign for some
| businesses, as I understand it.
|
| Really? In what language? I've never seen such a thing, but I
| don't get out much.
|
| There are certainly places that don't want to cater to
| foreigners, with reasons ranging from can't provide proper
| service in other languages to, I assume, virulent racism. But
| all they have to do is not accommodate any foreign language,
| and they won't get any foreigner business.
|
| Publicly stating it on a sign like that seems pretty
| unexpected.
| TheAceOfHearts wrote:
| I went to Japan a few years ago and also encountered some
| shops which had signs that said "no foreigners allowed". It
| was somewhere in Kyoto if I'm remembering correctly.
|
| Nobody bothered me or was disrespectful at any point in my
| trip.
|
| Edit: it was in small back alley shops which had long lines
| of various restaurants. You had to really poke around to end
| up in those hidden spots.
| robin_reala wrote:
| I saw it a couple of times in the mid 2000s; once in front of
| a strip joint and once in, slightly bizarrely, an Internet
| cafe, pointed out by the owner who then asked us to leave.
| I've never seen once since though.
| tecleandor wrote:
| If you click in the book, it's right in its description:
| Kissa by Kissa is a book about walking 1,000+km of the
| countryside of Japan along the ancient Nakasendo highway, the
| culture of toast (toast!), and mid-twentieth century Japanese
| cafes called kissaten.
|
| And per my experience and what I've been told from locals, the
| "No gaijin allowed" is only common if you're visiting certain
| industries (sex work, striptease, and the like...), maybe
| yakuza owned underground-ish dicey bars, and areas near
| American military bases were soldiers have been known to cause
| problems.
|
| When Japanese don't want to deal with foreigners, maybe because
| racist reasons, or just because they don't feel like explaining
| the rules or etiquette of a place to an outsider, they will
| just tell you the place is closed (even when busy), forbidden,
| busy (even when empty), or some other nonsense excuse.
| elcamino44 wrote:
| I'm gonna agree with everyone else. I've lived in Japan for
| years and never seen a sign like that.
| Aeolun wrote:
| > I can't imagine I'd be very happy about that as a cafe owner
|
| I kinda imagine most owners will find the book, learn it's
| about kissaten, think that's vaguely amusing, and then wonder
| mostly about how they're going to return it to the crazy gaijin
| that left it behind.
| kadonoishi wrote:
| Yeah, I was getting my Japanese visa and noticed the office
| wasn't that far from Shinagawa Station, so I decided to walk.
| Everyone thought it was super-weird I would _walk_ that, where
| any Tokyo native would take the bus. It was 2km, so, there 's a
| data point on what's considered an excessive walk in Tokyo.
|
| But I'm a person who would take a whole Saturday and spend 8hr
| walking through San Francisco or Seattle or NYC for fun.
| Magi604 wrote:
| I'm sure this isn't allowed anymore, but when I went to Tokyo
| over 10 years ago, me and my friend were just wandering around
| aimlessly. On a whim we decided to find the tallest building we
| could and go to the very top floor to see what the city looked
| like.
|
| So, we spotted the tallest tower near us (a totally random and
| generic office tower), got into the building, and took the
| elevator to the very top floor to peer out a window.
|
| I still remember what the view was like. It was an endless city
| as far as I could see.
| glanzwulf wrote:
| Looking forward to reading this. Walking is truly the best way to
| discover a city, and even yourself.
|
| On a personal experience, when I arrived to Tokyo for a month
| long vacation in Japan, I had planned going to the Tsukiji Market
| tuna auctions that first day. It was about 2 in the morning, I
| had just gotten off a plane, not really tired but the jet lag
| would kill me for sure, so the plan to counter jet lag would be
| to not sleep that day and rest the day after and sort of get in
| sync that way.
|
| Now, I don't know how it is now with the new market, but to be
| able to see the tuna auction you had to be at the market
| extremely early so, it being 2am seemed a perfect excuse to just
| walk. I walked for about 2h and when I arrived to the market I
| found out that day was a holiday in Japan and there would be no
| auctions that day. Disappointed, tired, I saw on google maps
| there was an Onsen nearby (around 1h30 away) so I kept walking to
| Odaiba. The Onsen in question used to be open something like 23h
| a day which was great for me at 5am.
|
| Now that was one hell of a way to relax after that long walk.
| Never rested that hard in my life.
| asah wrote:
| I recently discovered scooters (lime, bird, etc), and have to
| say that they now compete with walking for me.
|
| upsides versus walking: - 10x further distances - 10 blocks
| feels like 1, it's simply amazing. You can see parts of the
| city that are impractically far or bordered by
| boring/industrial zones.
|
| upsides versus biking: - slow enough to "take in" the sights,
| where biking definitely feels like you've "lost" something. -
| more stable / feels safer - much easier to stop & start, and
| easy to lock up for a few minutes. - about the same speed as
| manual bikes (in practice) but slower than e-bikes
|
| real downsides: - safety: if there's no bike lanes, then
| scooters can become hazardous. In particular, because they
| travel quickly, you can be safe one minute and then quickly
| have conditions degrade. The risks of medical attention vary by
| city - developing countries can have limited medical care; US
| medical care is $$$$. - disallowed & slow zones: it can be
| *VERY* annoying to have the scooter beeping at you, refuse to
| go, refuse to lock etc. And the GPS is imperfect, so you can be
| on the border of a legal zone and have it stop. I've had to
| walk scooters many times. - cargo: tough to carry significant
| cargo, e.g. groceries quickly become hazardous.
|
| perceived downsides: - return-anxiety: what if there's no
| scooters? ==> rarely happens, but if so, then take an uber! -
| range-anxiety: what if it runs out of juice? ==> I've ridden a
| lot and never come close... - one scooter available for two
| people? ==> if you're careful, you can put two people on a
| scooter, then scoot to the next scooter (apps all have maps of
| available scooters)
| kzrdude wrote:
| Another real downside to scooters is to miss out on a low-
| intensity physical activity that makes your body feel good. A
| day of activity, walking or bicycling, does wonders.
| asah wrote:
| Good point. But _in my experience_ scooting was always
| paired with a lot of walking as well.
|
| Put another way, scooting is the "skip to the next track"
| of walking.
| asah wrote:
| Just now: 10,000 steps plus a scooter ride passed the
| boring parts of downtown which I'd already seen. Just
| ordered Persian food at a tiny place in a cute
| neighborhood there's no way I'd have walked to, and not
| on the subway line.
| woweoe wrote:
| Walking is simpler and easier in most cases though. I find
| that the issue is more about how far people are capable of
| walking (e.g. fitness levels in much of Europe and Asia are
| better) and the fact that most people here have walked long
| distances from a young age.
| asah wrote:
| Sorry I value my time too much: yes I walk long distances
| but miles through boring suburbs, industrial zones, office
| parks - nah.
| ryukafalz wrote:
| > upsides versus biking: - slow enough to "take in" the
| sights, where biking definitely feels like you've "lost"
| something.
|
| Are you riding a road bike that requires you be hunched
| over/encourages high speeds or are you riding an upright city
| bike? Because I mostly ride the latter and I think it's a lot
| closer to the experience you describe with scooters.
|
| For example:
| https://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/upright-bike-
| vanco...
| asah wrote:
| Upright city bike (rented). I love riding bikes and it's
| very easy for me, but still not as "open" as scooters e.g.
| getting on/off.
| eternalban wrote:
| I did this for a week in Paris (late 2019, there was a strike
| and the metro had like 2 functional lines). In the afternoon
| of Christmas Eve got a yen to go to Montmarte, grabbed a
| scooter near Etoile and in short order got to experience the
| C.E. mass at Sacre-Coeur. The enhanced mobility is amazing,
| and its a great way to explore various alleys and
| neighborhoods. Frankly I was pleasantly surprised at how the
| Paris drivers coexisted with us on scooters. I felt perfectly
| safe.
| cinntaile wrote:
| Don't you just ride on the bicycle lanes? Why wouldn't that
| be safe?
| eternalban wrote:
| _iirc_ , there is a lane for buses and bikes, which is
| mainly what I used. But then there are the circles and
| intersections, and narrower streets naturally only have
| so much space.
| mlindner wrote:
| > I recently discovered scooters (lime, bird, etc), and have
| to say that they now compete with walking for me.
|
| FYI, these are illegal to use in Japan without a license.
| They require the same license that low CC motor bikes/mopeds
| require in Japan. They also require license plates.
| [deleted]
| bitwize wrote:
| I remember seeing an Andy Rooney segment on _60 Minutes_ back
| when he was alive, and he bought a small motor scooter to
| navigate New York City with. I 'll never forget his
| conclusion.
|
| "It's too fast to be safe on the sidewalks, but too slow to
| be used in traffic. So I packed it back in its box and put it
| in a closet, never to be used again."
| asah wrote:
| Agree: bike lanes are the answer.
| xatlasm wrote:
| >Disappointed, tired, I saw on google maps there was an Onsen
| nearby (around 1h30 away) so I kept walking to Odaiba. The
| Onsen in question used to be open something like 23h a day
| which was great for me at 5am. >Now that was one hell of a way
| to relax after that long walk. Never rested that hard in my
| life.
|
| If the onsen you went to is the one I'm thinking of, I have
| some bad news: it closed in September of last year.
|
| https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/news/odaiba-hot-spring-theme-p...
| Aeolun wrote:
| Crap, I'd been thinking of going there ever since I arrived
| in Japan 9 years ago but never made it :/
| thematrixturtle wrote:
| Much of Odaiba is currently closed for renovation/rebuilding.
|
| LaQua is probably the closest equivalent now in Tokyo,
| although it lacks the {kitschy,fun} Ye Olde Tokyo theme of
| Oedo Onsen. But hey, you get a roller coaster instead.
|
| https://www.laqua.jp/en/
| xdfgh1112 wrote:
| That sucks. It wasn't the best onsen but the fake Edo area
| was entertaining.
| glanzwulf wrote:
| Yeah, I heard something about that. Shame because once
| tourists are properly allowed back in japan I was thinking of
| going there again.
| bsaul wrote:
| As a european i got into the habbit of walking between popular
| city neighborhoods to find hidden gems. I did that in Tokyo, and
| that was a really big mistake. I ended up walking next to a huge
| higway, looking at bland buildings for like 20 minutes, feeling
| completely lost in the middle of nowhere.
|
| I thought about it a lot and came to the conclusion that tokyo
| wasn't one big city but in fact tenth of small cities linked
| together.
| woweoe wrote:
| Tokyo is basically centered along an orbital railway line, so
| if you were to walk out from this line that you would be
| basically walking to the suburbs with suburban highway roads to
| take you to the outskirts. And furthermore Tokyo is indeed
| based along walkable neighborhoods that are grouped into
| cities.
| tecleandor wrote:
| It is, in fact, a cluster of municipalities. Tokyo isn't
| considered a city anymore but a megalopolis.
|
| Per Wikipedia: Since 2001, Tokyo consists of 62
| municipalities: 23 special wards, 26 cities, 5 towns and 8
| villages. Any municipality of Japan has a directly elected
| mayor and a directly elected assembly, each elected on
| independent four-year cycles.
|
| It's interesting to see when you cross from "neighborhood" to
| "neighborhood", how things change as if you were in the
| outskirts of a city and then back to a busy center again.
| silverpepsi wrote:
| Yeah it eas the wrong technique, the interesting stuff is
| public transit and commerce driven. So there are a million JR
| and subway stops. If you got off at every single stop in
| existence and walked concentric circles around it, you'd find
| out the relative importance of each station as a destination
| and or transit hub and you'd find everything interesting and
| know exactly when to stop making bigger circles around a
| station by the reduction in things to see. And that's still an
| incredible mind blowing amount of land area you'd have to walk
| Aeolun wrote:
| Walking between any of the popular neighborhoods in Tokyo, I'm
| surprised you managed that.
|
| Even if you are walking on a large road, you can basically
| always jump to a smaller parallel road to arrive back in
| wonderland.
| valenceelectron wrote:
| That is kind of what it is, yes: "Tokyo Metropolis [which]
| consists of 23 special wards and 39 other, ordinary
| municipalities (cities, towns, and villages). [...] Today, all
| wards refer to themselves as a city in English, but the
| Japanese designation of special ward (tokubetsu-ku) remains
| unchanged"
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_wards_of_Tokyo)
|
| Some of these wards consist of high rise buildings only, some
| are residential areas with hidden alleys and family-friendly
| environment. As a fellow European who lived in Tokyo for one
| year, I cannot support your statement but your experience
| walking around highly depends on where in Tokyo you are. For
| some wards, you are probably entirely correct. However, other
| wards allow for the experience shared by others here.
| ripley12 wrote:
| I've walked Tokyo a lot, and I think you're drawing an odd
| conclusion from a sample size of 1.
| rgrieselhuber wrote:
| Craig is the one writer and photographer I know who captures the
| beautiful aspects of quotidian life in Japan.
| krm01 wrote:
| I had never heard of a popup newsletter. What a wonderful idea
| and concept. Are there more popup newsletters launching anytime
| soonish?
| user_named wrote:
| I spent about a month walking around Tokyo in 2008. I cam before
| university started and I would just walk around an area and
| systematically go through all the little alleys and sidestreets.
| Other people who arrived just before the semester never had time
| to do the same and never built the same understanding of the
| city. I had a dumbphone so there wasn't anyway to turn off your
| brain and just find places to discover through a list.
| mywacaday wrote:
| I visited Tokyo in 2019 and went to the top of the Skytree. It
| was one of the few times in my life where my mind was completely
| blown. The scale of the city from the viewing point of 450m had
| me spaced out staring into the distance trying to comprehend the
| vast scale. If you ever get the opportunity to go I can't
| recommend it enough, Try going on a clear day about an hour
| before sunset and watch the city transform. Photos really can't
| do it justice.
| Klonoar wrote:
| Tokyo isn't really a city - it's a metropolis made up of
| _several cities_.
| kurthr wrote:
| I'll also recommend, the Shinjuku Government Building (for
| free), but also Mori Tower, Shibuya Skyview, and Tokyo Tower
| for ~Y1000 each.
| Aeolun wrote:
| I think the incredible part is that even from 450m high you
| cannot see the end. It's just city as far as the eye can see.
| mywacaday wrote:
| That's what blew my mind, I remember having the thought of
| what if you lost someone, where would you even begin to look.
| zeeZ wrote:
| Looking down at the nearby highrises feels absolutely surreal.
| There are more observatories deeper in the city, like the Tokyo
| metropolitan government building (which is also free), while
| only about half as tall, will I think give you a nicer view of
| just city around you on every side.
| bane wrote:
| I had a similar experience there as well. To me Tokyo is "The
| Infinite City". I've never experienced anything quite like it
| and I say this as somebody who lives in the virtually unbroken
| urban mega corridor and travel regularly to Seoul.
| [deleted]
| thematrixturtle wrote:
| So there's no content yet, and this is just an ad at this point?
| dfcowell wrote:
| Pretty much, however I can vouch for the quality of the
| poster's other newsletters.
|
| He's also very good about sending only what he says he's going
| to send, when he says he'll send it and deleting the list
| afterwards.
|
| Of course, you need to deal with the quirk of the material only
| being available by email, which isn't the worst fate in the
| world.
| lovemenot wrote:
| That one photo looks like it might have been taken near
| Sangubashi.
| coobird wrote:
| It's definitely a section on the Toden Arakawa Line, the last
| surviving streetcar line in Tokyo. The catenaries look like
| them, especially the 3rd one in with the tower-like structures.
| Those are likely the ones built over 100 years ago when the
| line opened.
|
| My best guess is this crossing that's just a little bit south
| of the Shin-Koshinzuka station:
| https://www.google.com/maps/@35.740949,139.7302377,43m
| V__ wrote:
| This is the first time I came across a "pop-up" newsletter which
| automatically unsubscribes you after the project is done. What a
| neat idea. Love it.
| rvba wrote:
| How safe is Tokyo really? I ask, because Japan is considered one
| of the safest countries in the world.
|
| However even the first picture (on the right side) shows that
| windows have bars - probably to secure the building against
| thieves? How much theft is there in Japan?
|
| edit: even more visible bars are on the window on the left side
| presentation wrote:
| Barely any. I've forgotten my backpack on the train and my
| wallet at the supermarket and felt pretty secure they'd still
| be there when I returned hours/a day later, and they were. I
| leave my laptop unattended in cafes and nobody takes it. My
| friend only had his city bike stolen after 4+ years of not
| owning a bike lock. Women can generally wander the streets
| alone at 3am without worry. You still should have some amount
| of common sense and probably not do the above lightly, but
| knowing that your actual chances of getting in trouble is low
| is a great thing.
|
| Most of the crime I hear of is stuff like people getting ripped
| off in rip off bars; perverts taking up skirt photos in crowded
| trains; desperate people taking insanely bad loans from loan
| sharks and then being intimidated to pay them; and the
| occasional off the chain beheading once ever now and then.
| Hence the general bewilderment when Abe got shot.
| Aeolun wrote:
| > My friend only had his city bike stolen after 4+ years of
| not owning a bike lock.
|
| My friend had something similar after claiming you didn't
| need to lock your bike in Japan. Only they didn't take his
| bike. They locked it, and took just the key. It still brings
| a smile to my face to think about it.
| mnahkies wrote:
| I spent a few weeks in Japan and it was the safest I've
| probably ever felt.
|
| Interestingly though there was one night I went out and my
| friend living in that city was glad I didn't get harassed for
| being gaijin - apparently the area I went out in is notorious
| for people being rough on foreigners (somewhere in Fukuoka
| close to 10 years ago)
| dncornholio wrote:
| Those look like railings to me, more for safety than for
| security.
| mlindner wrote:
| > However even the first picture (on the right side) shows that
| windows have bars - probably to secure the building against
| thieves? How much theft is there in Japan?
|
| I think the bars are more for protection against flying debris
| during typhoons or to protect children from falling out of open
| windows.
| Morgawr wrote:
| I live in Tokyo. It's a very safe city and you can walk around
| even in the evening/night (maybe it's best not to at *LATE*
| night, but still) without many issues. Obviously, there's still
| "bad people" no matter where you go on this planet, so you
| can't just drop your guard completely (especially in very
| tourist-heavy neighborhoods with people waiting to take
| advantage of you). In the 3 or so years I've lived here, the
| worst I've had was hearing people shout drunk at night every
| once in a while in my neighborhood. Oh, and also an old man
| with a wooden sword going nuts against another old man with a
| hammer but the police was called and they got both taken away,
| seemed like some family feud or some stuff at like 3am under my
| window.
|
| Regardless, if you live on the ground floor (or even higher
| floors), having bars on your windows is relatively
| common/normal/advisable no matter where you are. I'm in a high
| rise building on a high floor and my windows have bars but it
| feels more like an architectural design than anything (also it
| prevents people from accidentally falling off, especially if
| you have kids or pets). They also prevent stalkers or laundry
| thieves, which are sometimes common (unfortunately), especially
| towards women.
| bane wrote:
| It's so safe that expats who return to their home countries
| after spending a few years there often report needing to
| relearn basic "street smarts" personal awareness and safety
| practices.
| nico wrote:
| There's a tradition in Japan of sending 3yo kids on their first
| errand by themselves. There was even a tv show about it.
|
| In my experience, Tokyo, and Japan overall, is maybe the safest
| city/country in the world.
| bane wrote:
| There's a lot to be said about Tokyo and how easy it is to get
| around on foot and live without a car. It's kind of a surreal
| dreamscape of unbroken high density urbanity that makes you
| rethink how large highly functional cities can be.
|
| One of the challenges for seeing it on foot though is _how
| effective_ the public transit is, especially the underground rail
| systems. You end up seeing islands around transit stations but
| not the stretches in between. It 's totally worth it sometimes to
| skip the train and just walk the entire way as there's lots of
| interesting stuff in the "out of the way" bits of the city.
| kurthr wrote:
| I'd recommend taking Yamanote-sen and Chuo/Sobu-sen and walking
| the interior.
|
| It saves a lot of money with a JR Rail pass not taking the
| subway, if you have the time and the weather is nice.
| kadonoishi wrote:
| Yeah, I was getting my Japanese visa and noticed the office
| wasn't that far from Shinagawa Station, so I decided to walk.
| Everyone thought it was super-weird I would _walk_ that, where
| any Tokyo native would take the bus. It was 2km, so, there 's a
| data point on what's considered an excessive walk in Tokyo.
|
| But I'm a person who would take a whole Saturday and spend 8hr
| walking through San Francisco or Seattle or NYC for fun, so,
| biased data point.
| coldtea wrote:
| > _makes you rethink how large highly functional cities can
| be._
|
| And how exteremely safe
| Barrin92 wrote:
| >It's kind of a surreal dreamscape of unbroken high density
| urbanity
|
| the funny thing is Tokyo's not even that dense, about a third
| as dense as Paris or Barcelona, and very sprawlish and suburban
| (IIRC 75% of the city is suburbs) but transit is indeed
| excellent and at least they don't inhibit construction to run a
| housing value racket.
| myow wrote:
| People can also visit and go up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government
| Building for free in Shinjyuku. A neat view of the city. Walking
| through Meiji Jinguu is also pretty nice. I like walking from
| Shinjyuku, through Meiji Jingu and getting to Shibuya (~1h)
|
| https://www.yokoso.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en/tenbou/index.html
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