Japan is so safe! I saw people leaving their car doors open, leaving the key inserted in scooters, bicycles unchained outside stores, things on table in restaurants while they go to the washroom, etc.
My only safety advice is to be careful in bars in Roppongi or Kabukicho in Tokyo. Ground zero for scams. Better places are found elsewhere anyways. And don't use or buy drugs. Punishment is severe if you get caught.
+Colin Flaherty Not the point. The original comment was to advise against doing something illegal. Great tip ...like don’t shoplift or drive drunk or break into homes.
I heard somewhere that there is a lot of crime on an island that is considered part of Antarctica, because there is no law enforcement. I could be wrong though.
I live in Japan and can say the Japanese people are some of the kindest most humble and helpful people I have ever met. It is super safe here, but you do have to be careful when walking, bikes are allowed on the sidewalks.
I'm Japanese. I visited many countries and definitely here is the safest. I lost my wallet many times (maybe 3 times?), but I returned all time with my cash. Is it unbelievable? But Japan is such a country!
During the journey by train from Osaka to Himeji I witnessed a strange catch an. Some part of the button fell to the floor and a young boy picked it up and started to ask who it is. Nobody came to get lost, so he put it down in the same place and got off at the next station. I noticed that the button fits the girl's handbag so I picked it up and said it was her. She was embarrassed but she thanked me. I was surprised by the attitude of a boy, in another country no one would care.
Mark, I do hope you see this msg. Anywhere I go in the world, whether it may be for work or the the family, I love to look up your channel. It's just great you talk about the real things that's that real people want to know! Good luck for the future and safe travels buddy 👌🏼
6 лет назад
The japanese sweets are so delicious! I ate some of them in London 😋
Little kids ride the train alone all the time. If that doesn't convince you it's a safe place nothing will. I go for 2 weeks every year and have never ever been worried. Only thing that might vanish on you is your umbrella.
@Blue Crusader Ya, but that's what I'm saying. You can't judge safety by something like this because kids go on their own in places that aren't so safe.
Watching this during quarantine. Japan is definitely a place I want to travel to. My goal is to be financially stable that I can visit twice a year. Thanks for the great advice Wolter ❤ I can't wait to travel again 🙏
Thanks for the info once again a great video! Greetings from New York City. I’m a new subscriber and have already seen most of your videos today! Stay well God bless you and your lovely family! 🙏👍
Even at my first time in Japan I have gone to so many places just but asking and Google site and everything is laid in the way that should be and everything is will organized, beside effective metro system. Just the most annoying thing is traffic jam and over packed metro.
Drinking water in Japan is totally safe. Japan is one of the few places in the world that rains naturally soft water. It is MUCH better than any USA town or city.
While you don’t hear much English being spoken, almost everyone understands basic English. English is part of the school curriculum for Middle and High School students and has been for several decades.
me and my family are planning a trip to japan and we are very exited . we are going to visit the kodokan judo institut in tokyo . the birth place of judo , great videos as always Wolter , greatings from france .
As far as the not speaking Japanese thing I traveled there in 2016 and was unable to speak Japanese. I had learned some essential words and phrases but one thing I could not have done without was POCKET WIFI! You can order it online and have it available when you arrive at the airport or have it delivered to your hotel. It is quite cheap and allows you to use things like google, google maps, and google translate. Google maps was a life saver while I was there. Hope this tip helps everyone! Thanks again for the great videos!
My mother once forgot her iPad at the ticket machine and we got it back immediately although we already rode a couple of stations and had to turn around... Where else on earth would that be possible? 😂
One of the weirdest things I saw in Tokyo was a mother leaving a sleeping 3 or 4 year old outside a store at around 7 pm while she shopped. Also my cousins from Mexico City while visiting Osaka forget their mariachi instrument came back a couple hours later and found it exactly were they had forgotten it
Actually the thing you got to fear in Japan is get run over by bicyclist in the pedestrian side-walk. A lot of them ride very fast and silent especially at night, they're on to you before you realize it.
About bicycles: It is legal for them to ride on the sidewalk, so it is safest to look over your shoulder if you are moving from one side of the sidewalk to the other (i.e. on the SAME side of the street, but on a wide sidewalk) or from one side of a narrow "mostly pedestrian" street to the other side. Usually, if the sidewalk is too crowded with pedestrians, even for people to walk, the people on bikes will stay in the street. But if the sidewalk is not that crowded with walking people, if you remember, you should watch out when walking cross-ways on the sidewalk or there may occasionally (not that often, but often enough) be a bit of a surprise. If bicycles are on a wide sidewalk they are supposed to be on the side of the sidewalk closest to the street, but if that part is blocked with walking people, the bicyclists will try to move around them & it can be a bit of a surprise if you are not expecting the bikes to be so close.
You made comments about the bike lanes in the Netherlands quite a few times (and not without reason....), but that's still way better than Japan. On the bigger streets cyclists just ride on the sidewalk, and even in the rare cases when there's a line separating one side for pedestrians and the other for bikes, no one seems to care. And they can come from any direction, so always be aware for that. Some cyclist seem to be aiming for you, no matter how hard you try to avoid them.... A danger more specific for mountain towns: because of the snow those places get in winter, most roads have wide and deep gutters on both sides of the roads. Often they are covered, but sometimes they aren't. And when there's no street lighting, it's easy to step into one of them. It happened to me last year in Hida-Furakuwa during a busy matsuri ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aq6gOxVW8wA.html ), and resulted in me being taken by ambulance to a hospital to get some stitches. It was an interesting experience, but not something I want to do again :-) Otherwise, like others already said the biggest danger might be the scams in Kabukicho and Roppongi. If someone (mostly Nigerians or Eastern Europeans) approaches you for some drinks in a bar with sexy girls, NEVER EVER follow them. They WILL take you to some closed-off bar, you WILL get a ridiculous bill, they WILL make you pay, and the police won't do a thing. Just say no and keep walking, no matter how long they keep bothering you. This can be rather annoying, and for me is enough reason not to go to these areas unless I have a specific reason to go there. This is something very specific to these two areas, go to any other entertainment district in either Tokyo or any other major city, and it's no problem at all.
Hi Mark. Due to a change in dates I had to change my NC trip and instead will be flying to Japan in August so these videos are very much appreciated. Also 'young Mark' may now make an appearance in Japan!
Walter-san, thank you very much for introducing our country so nice. But, please note that Japan is safe country but, but there are many crimes of course. Not just Crimes Free Country. Domo Arigato!
I love your jersey. It looks exactly like the Italian football jersey (with the Italian flag 🇮🇹 ) . It took me a while to figure out its WALTERS WORLD jersey. Just Google Italian Jersey and you'll see what I mean. Actually your colors are the very original jersey colors, at least as I remember it. LOL Was that intentional? It looks super cool 🇮🇹.
Jocelyn Wolters Congratulations, it looks very authentic. I have seen this shirt before and I always passed it as an official Italian Jersey. It looks very good and has very vibrant vivid color.
I don't understand how this video can supposedly address safety in Japan without mentioning the 300 lb gorilla in the room... or more accurately the annual attacks from a 12-story-high indestructible radiation breathing dinosaur.
100% agree! Just be careful with traffic (they riding on a left side of the road, and allowed to turn left on red signal) and drunk people(night trains of Friday for example) just because they can fall on you or puke on you :D
I'm gonna visit this country when I'm old enough to travel by myself. The ancient architecture just amazes me! I've also seen some nice parks, and the cherry trees look so amazing. Altho I'm definetly not gonna try their food. Rice ball definetly, sushy probably not. Raw fish. No thanks.
You've got relative safety from other people so the cities are very safe. The countryside though you have to be careful, not because of crime, but because there are bears.
What are some ways I can help myself be prepared to try new foods? I'm usually scared to try something that is unknown or has uncommon ingredients. How can I help myself work through this before travel?
Take the bus, it's $10 or the train, it's $20. Narita is over 60 miles away. Manhattan to Newark is 18 miles and taxi's charge $70 and that's without tipping. So close to the same.
For the most part I found Japan cheaper than Australia. The hotel I stayed in last month (in Shinjuku) was probably dearer than an Australian equivalent, but I think that's typical of Tokyo. Public transport (Metro) ridiculously cheap in Tokyo.
Japan and UK are only able to travel on the "normal" side as you call it just because they are islands so their roads don't connect to other countries that drive on the right side