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Tourist Season in Tokyo

Sudsy said:
We have a Caucasian American girl in my local Family Mart. Really surprised, she's attractive, bright, and articulate. Why she isn't teaching or actually modelling for baito is beyond me, she'd easily make 4 times what she does bagging chicken and chu hais.
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Modeling is very competitive now for white girls. The market for blonde white girls is pretty saturated and any extra grams on your body or being over 22-23 can be the end of your modeling career.
 
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Simonka said:
Modeling is very competitive now for white girls. The market for blonde white girls is pretty saturated and any extra grams on your body or being over 22-23 can be the end of your modeling career.
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Yep. Modeling work is too inconsistent.
If you lounch a job that does not conflict with studies (assuming she is a student), its only one or two days, a payment between 10.000~ 300.000 and then there is no way to known when the next job will be. Sometimes you dont get invites to apply for jobs some months. Its not a reliable job.
English teacher doesn’t pay great unless you are popular because of your looks, which can lead to harassment or even stalkers.
 
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Sudsy said:
The tourist inundation is a recent thing. Golden Gai used to be the place you went to avoid them...
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I remember those day when the proximity of Golden Gai and Center Gai was sort of no-go at night. Back then I felt much safer in other parts of Shinjuku, like Shonben Yokocho.

Btw, I think the closest place from Shinjuku where there are a good number of traditional Japanese izakayas and "snack bars" as yet unspoiled by tourists is Araki-cho, near Yotsuya 3-chome metro station, a neighborhood of the Anpanman shop.
 
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Took the train this morning - on Marunouchi Line and there’s one dude in the whole car just babbling away on his phone, loudly. The rest of the car is dead quiet...

I’ve come to appreciate the quiet mornings on the trains when I do use them.

Those days are fading...
 
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TAG Manager said:
one dude in the whole car just babbling away on his phone, loudly.
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Foreign? Whenever I see a Japanese person try that the collective stinkeye usually makes them try to become invisible.
 
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Sudsy said:
Foreign? Whenever I see a Japanese person try that the collective stinkeye usually makes them try to become invisible.
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yeah, foreign... not sure where he was from. Looked like he may have been from India... didn't recognize the language, so not sure.
 
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TAG Manager said:
yeah, foreign... not sure where he was from. Looked like he may have been from India... didn't recognize the language, so not sure.
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Perhaps Karankarn has finally arrived to begin his illustrious career?
 
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ur19877 said:
Here's my last story of freaking tourists from my recent trip...and though I am one, I have a bit of a right to be bitter when it comes to this story..

Saturday night we (Japanese girl...from a girl I met at a bar ) are at Golden Gai..
First stop...bar called Aces.
10 people at the bar. 6 foreigners and 4 Japanese.. Including my girl, everyone was speaking English. The other Japanese people found it to be good practice for an English lesson.
She was a bit irritated about how much English was being used and that is when I went into my "Japan is a beautiful country that will more and more discovered, you better get used to this" rant..
she was like whatever and we moved on....

2nd bar.. Less known bar that discourage foreigners, but doesn't invite them openly.. also a bit harder to find.
We come in and there was no one there...which was fine..
slowly..more tourists comes and the ratio was 8 to 2 (foreigners to Japanese), with only the bartender and my girl being the only Japanese people there..
One American guy comes in and starts chatting it away, talking with everyone, being his social self..
sits next to my girl and becomes social..I'm thinking bro...she's kind of busy, let's move on..
He starts to talk about where we met, how we keep our relationship going, etc etc.. then he starts to ask why I (me) haven't asked her to America for a visit..
I'm thinking.."dude, got a wife, a family, there are reasons why I haven't invited her over..." of course I don't have mental telepathy so he has no clue, except some cold glances here and there from myself..
this lit the match to some debates from her and I...but given our track record, it could have gotten a lot worse..

Bar Master explained that
1. Foreigners tend to smoke outside which increases fire risk and trash
2. Foreigners aren't thrilled to pay the cover charge and that is a bit hard to explain at times..
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i noticed the smoking thing as well when i was in japan. white dudes would go outside to smoke..japanese would sit at the bar and smoke.
i dont get it....there is no smoking legally allowed in doors in the west...So when given the chance to comfortably sit at the bar and smoke while casually sipping their drink....why doesnt everybody take it!?
 
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BankerguyCanada said:
So when given the chance to comfortably sit at the bar and smoke while casually sipping their drink....why doesnt everybody take it!?
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It's ingrained behavior now. It's no longer culturally acceptable in the West to smoke indoors, to subject people to your strong smells, so even when given the chance, people can't quite break free of that feeling.
 
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BankerguyCanada said:
i sure as hell did. insert (feels good man) meme here
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I'm not one to complain about laws in other countries, so when I'm there, I don't really care if people smoke inside, but I'd imagine for some people, they just can't shake the feeling that if they do smoke inside, people will give them dirty looks because that's what happens back home. I'd imagine that might defeat the relaxation that comes with smoking for some.
 
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I've heard that Jan/Feb are months that retailers get less business (less crowded) due to tax and weather. Are there other times of the year that are less crowded?
 
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Hope44 said:
I've heard that Jan/Feb are months that retailers get less business (less crowded) due to tax and weather. Are there other times of the year that are less crowded?
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Depends a lot on the kind of business, but for retailers weekday afternoons are usually pretty dead.
I wouldn't be caught dead in Ikea on a weekend but on weekdays its generally pretty chill (unless its the spring moving season...)
School breaks (spring break, summer break, etc), Obon, New Years holiday (generally from Jan 2 on), etc are usually peak times and everything is pretty busy.
 
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BankerguyCanada said:
i noticed the smoking thing as well when i was in japan. white dudes would go outside to smoke..japanese would sit at the bar and smoke.
i dont get it....there is no smoking legally allowed in doors in the west...So when given the chance to comfortably sit at the bar and smoke while casually sipping their drink....why doesnt everybody take it!?
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Instead, smoking while walking on the street is illegal in several municipalities in Tokyo whereas that's what smokers are doing in, say, NYC.
 
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ur19877 said:
Walking around, I see more tourists.. but here is the WTF moment of this trip.
I was at a coffee shop in harajuku and the lady from the french couple in front of me ordered apple juice, without ice. I get it that many French/Euro's get their cold drink with out ice. After getting her drink, she gave the barista a WTF look because her glass was only half full. She sort of politely asked for more juice, to the puzzled/startled look of the barista. The barista filled up the juice to about 3/4 of the way, which resulted into another WTF look, but not another request..

My take is (of course only opinion)
1. The Japanese girl did exactly the right thing to do, as that was the way she was trained, and how culturally, she probably thinks there is nothing wrong in giving a customer 1/2 glass of a beverage.
2. The French woman wasn't out of line, as she reacted from the way she was culturally brought up. I'm assuming anyways...

Many people say that when you visit a foreign country, you should learn and abide by their customs and 'cultural rules'.... I agree, but a lot that is easier said than done. If I go to Thailand, I am going to be researching foods, beaches and how to ensure I P4P with a woman and not a ladyboy...

To end this out, my immediate reaction was to side with the barista, in the amount of juice given to the French woman...
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She was French, so she was going to give a nasty look no matter what happened. I was just in France. Nasty looks abound. And they served me dog food once too.
 
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warubuta said:
She was French, so she was going to give a nasty look no matter what happened. I was just in France. Nasty looks abound. And they served me dog food once too.
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Yeah, we’re good at those looks. And dog food too:)
 
BankerguyCanada said:
in Canada, its the Americans
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I dont know how they behave in Canada but once I was on holiday in Vegas, on a 4th of July... okay, okay, their turf, their day, and who would go to Vegas to get silent meditations anyway... but damn were they loud! Especially the girls , I must say
 
Frenchy said:
I dont know how they behave in Canada but once I was on holiday in Vegas, on a 4th of July... okay, okay, their turf, their day, and who would go to Vegas to get silent meditations anyway... but damn were they loud! Especially the girls , I must say
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I'm guessing the girls that go to Yellowstone aren't quite as loud though.
 
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