Samurai_Jerk wrote:Another list. This time it's 50 reasons Tokyo is the world's greatest city. The list is .... meh. Check out the comments though. They're really negative.
Here's a couple of examples:All true, but you forgot to mention that as a non-Japanese/foreigner you will be the victim of racism and discrimination without fail. Moreover, English is not widely spoken, or even attempted at many of the above establishment. Finally, don't even consider going if you do not have serious coin; backpackers not welcome.Lucy Blackman, Lindsay Hawker, Nicola Furlong, Scott Kang, Richard Scott Tucker, Julia Chu, Lin Chih-ying, all young foreigners murdered because they thought Tokyo night-life was safe. There are many more cases we never hear about.
Many Japanese think the red light zones are dangerous. Governor Ishihara said he was too scared to go there, and he ordered police to arrest foreigners working there. Roppongi and Shinjuku are notorious for credit card scams, spiked drinks and drugs, yakuza violence and rip-offs. You didn't hear about those 10 guys with baseball bats beating somebody to death in front of 300 people at a dance club? Remember the Nozaki case? He got 3 years for flushing a Filipina's body parts down a toilet, got out of jail, killed another. Even famous TV host Peter Barakan was assaulted. Mainali from Nepal spent 16 years in jail for a crime he didn't commit in Shibuya red light district. The stories go on and on.
These gaijin writers, who work in government propaganda roles, would know all about these cases. Writing about cat cafes and eating dirt is one thing. Telling foreign visitors they are safe in a red light district, when they are not, is pretty bad. It's an outright lie, and a dangerous one. Why is CNN paying these people to write this? Would you tell people they are safe in sleazy bars in Pattaya or Phuket or Phnom Penh or Manila? When the next innocent foreigner dies in Tokyo, we can thank this site for keeping people blind and ignorant about Japan.
Of course the person who wrote the above doesn't mind mixing their 'facts' up. Lucy Blackman was working as a hostess and chose to go on a date outside nighclub/restaurant territory with a stranger. He may have initially gone to the club as a customer but it was her choice to go to his home at the beachside and he was still a stranger. She did not deserve to have anything bad happen to her - assault, rape, murder, or anything else - but I remember thinking at the time her parents and Tony Blair were pushing the Japanese govt to do something to investigate for real that she was probably the victim of a rogue customer.
Hostessing had and has no visa for women from western countries - why on earth did that not ring a very loud bell with Lucy and others? Sure I remember reading all the bullshit in guide books and through the media how western women could earn money by hostessing back in the 90s and early 2,000s but if anybody who went on a tourist visa to Japan to do that and didn't receive a 'hostess visa' didn't smell a rat, then that was ultimately down to them. Everybody except for a person who has a sub par IQ understands that in any country working on a tourist visa is a legal no no regardless of whether you get away with it or not.
Lindsay Hawker wasn't murdered by the Tokyo nightlife or red light districts. She was murdered at the apartment of a stranger who had asked her to tutor him privately. His apartment was not in a red light district. She didn't apply the normal thinking she would have in her home country that it may not be a good idea to go by herself to the home of a bloke she didn't know but who claimed he wanted her to teach him a language or some other academic subject.
The other unlucky foreigners who were murdered in red light districts in Tokyo could just as well have been murdered in other big cities all over the world - and not necessarily in red light districts. Just ask the families and friends of the Asian girls murdered in Brisbane, Australia, over the last couple of years. In both cases the sexual assault-murders (at least one of the poor girls was sexually assaulted) were crimes of opportunity committed by some scumbag wandering around at times when few people were around but those girls were unlucky enough to be on their way to an early morning job or whatever.
There are many other examples of other cities in Oz and all over the world that could be talked about. I have been around Osaka's most dangerous areas both during the day and at night and not once did I feel anything could end up being bad or fatal for me. In bad areas anywhere I am alert, I can identify where not to go, I am respectful to the locals, and I don't wander around looking like I have no idea what I am doing.
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Yes, yes. I was using poetic licence for comedic effect there. All I know is that she and I have criss crossed across 2 very different Japans. Mine is just as enjoyable, I think, but it isn't covered in treacle and extra sweetened Smarties.
