Hey guys! Rachel has joined me today!
I wanted to make a video talking about safety in Japan
and how safe I feel here
Because I get asked lots of questions like if I feel safe walking alone at night
If I've had any issues being attacked by people
or harassed by people
So I thought that would be a cool topic to invite someone else to join me
So that you can hear both of our experiences
Because I'm sure we've had very different experiences
I wanna start out by saying that I feel a lot safer in Japan
than I do in Canada, in general
Walking down the street here
I don't feel worried that some guy's gonna come up and grab me
or try to attack me or anything
I never have that feeling when I'm walking alone on the streets here
How about you?
Exactly the same
I've never felt in danger here, ever
For me that's really different to how I feel in Canada
Canada, I'm sure has a really safe image to it
and I'm sure it's a lot safer than other countries, many other countries
But I've been grabbed by a guy before
in Canada, when I was talking down the street
So I'm kind of traumatized
When I'm in Canada I'm always very careful at night time
I always bring a friend with me if I'm planning to go somewhere late at night
I make sure that my friend gets a ride over to my house
and we're gonna walk together
But in Japan I never feel that I have to do that
Right, no, it's very similar for me
I've never been attacked
But I have stayed in an apartment in America
and one of our neighbour's houses was broken into in the middle of the night
while the female neighbour was still in there
and you could hear her screaming for help, and it was so terrifying!
I was so terrified
And I've had a lot of uncomfortable experiences with guys
Oh yeah, like yelling stuff at you as you walk down the street?
I have guys... they like to do this thing to me
where they walk past me and whisper in my ear
Oh gross!!!
Ugh I know exactly what you mean
"Hey baby~" or something
They think they're being clever
Has that ever worked on anyone?
I don't think there's any girl that would react positively to that
It's always "Hey Red!" or "Sup flame?"
Oh no... it's even worse for you with your hair D;
I feel for you... I can just imagine
That's one thing that I really like about Japan!
Is that people won't make comments at you as you're walking down the street
Well actually, that's not true
They'll make comments about you being a foreigner
They'll make general comments about you being...
Yeah yeah, like they'll talk about the shape of your head
Which is weird. Or like...
Or like... "Wow! Foreigners have such big noses!"
They might say something like that
But people won't be like "Hey sexy!" or "Oooo looking' good!"
like people in Canada would
It's not like everyone in North America is bad or something
I've had a lot of guys who would say stuff
but they would be nice about it and I didn't feel uncomfortable
They would approach you in a nice way?
Yeah yeah, there's definitely people that do that too
And here people just don't approach me, at all!
It's nice!
They're like terrified of me or something
The only unpleasant experiences that I've had in Japan
that I really want to share with you guys because
it's something that I was not expecting at all when it happened
and I was kind of traumatized
So I wanna let you know that it's something that happens quite commonly here
which is sad :/
People touching you on the train
Trains here are sooo crowded
In Tokyo they're packed! Literally like sardines
People will be like this on the train
There'll be someone here, someone here
And people usually have their hands down here
So it's really easy for a guy to touch your leg
They'll try and do it subtly
Just kinda like rub up against your leg
But you know what they're doing
The first time I came to Japan, I was 17
and I was wearing a skirt on the train
and this guy stuck his hand right up under my skirt
and like grabbed my butt
and I was just like "Holy shit what just happened!?"
I was not expecting it at all
So I just wanna warn you guys that that's something that does happen here
and it's not extremely rare or anything
It does happen quite commonly
So especially if you're wearing a skirt, something that guys can reach up in there
be a lot more careful
Kinda try to block yourself, maybe with your bag
If you see that you're right beside a guy on the train
maybe try to get your hands in between the 2 of you
or something, just to protect yourself
There are definitely methods to protect yourself on the train
Like standing with your back to your door
Yeah, try and get as close as you can up to the wall
Yeah, definitely
That's the only... I've had one other bad experience on a train
I tweeted about it, so maybe some of you followed me as it was happening
But this guy pretended to fall asleep on my shoulder
It was so obvious because he was awake
then all of a sudden he's on my shoulder
It was so weird because all the seats were open in the train
and he sat right down next to me, so I was like "Oh god...
this isn't going to end well"
So he "falls asleep" on my shoulder and I'm just like
Ugh and I move over and he kind of falls off
And then he tries it again
and then I look at him like "What are you doing?"
And he leans in to kiss me!!!
What the!?
Like he was so close to kissing me!
And I woulda punched him so I'm really glad that he didn't
because it could've ended horribly with the police and everything
Here, I'll reenact it with Rachel
You'll be me
Ok so he's on my shoulder right
and then I kinda nudge him off
Then he looks up and looks at me, and then he's like...
and he got like THIS close to my face!!
and I was like "WHOA whoa..."
"What the hell..."
In English I'm just like "Fuck off!"
"What are you doing!?" I was really surprised
He stood up, and went over to the door
and he got off at the next stop
I don't know if it was his stop or what
But thank god, he got off the train
and we didn't really cause a big scene
There were 2 other people a little further away from us on the train
And they just kinda started laughing
Which I thought was kind of mean, it wasn't funny to me
I was pretty pissed off
No, that's really creepy
But those 2 incidents are the only 2 issues that I've had
And the only 2 incidents where I've felt kind of uncomfortable
It's not that I feel unsafe
because I've never felt that someone's going to physically harm me
But yeah, sexual touching
You gotta be careful with that stuff in trains in Japan
Have you had any bad experiences on trains?
I haven't actually
But usually I go out with Jun
So I dunno if guys are more like... ya know, Jun's so tall and stuff
I'm sure if they see that you're with someone else
Especially if you're with someone that looks like your boyfriend
they're probably not going to try anything
Because you would tell them right?
You'd be like "That guy just touched me!!"
So yeah it's definitely safer to be with someone
I have been approached a couple of times before
It's called "nanpa" - like getting hit on by guys
But it's not... like I've had it happen in America too
Like uncomfortably and some guys are just, you know, they're just kinda nice
and here I wouldn't say it's uncomfortable
It's a little... sometimes it can be weird
Because they'll come up to you and be like "Hey, where are you from?"
"What's your name?"
And then they'll go right into "Wanna go on a date?"
or "Wanna come back to my house?"
And it's like "Ew. Who are you? I do not know you"
It's not gonna happen.
I had one guy not too long ago, he came up to me
and was like "Hey, are you from France?"
and I was like "No" and he was like "I'm sorry"
Why are you sorry I'm not from France???
He's like "I like your style"
and I was like "Ok, thanks"
I was like "I'm married"
As soon as he walked away he said I'm sorry again or something
or like "I like your style"
At least he apologized, that was nice
I've had people get angry at me when I said no
They'd be like "What's your problem?" in Japanese
Usually when guys nanpa you here they're drunk
Ah, yeah
You're in the city late at night and someone's stumbling home from a bar
A lot of times they're with a group of friends
and a guy will come up and be like "Hey my friend speaks English!"
or whatever, and they're all giggling in the background
"He speaks English~" and like "You wanna go get a drink?"
And I'm like "No."
I never feel unsafe though, right?
I don't feel unsafe
As awkward and obnoxious it is to be picked up by people you're not interested in
I never feel like "Omg, this guy might attack me!" or something
In Canada I often feel like I kinda gotta be careful
Yeah, I mean, there are bad people everywhere
And there are good people everywhere, so it's not like you know...
It's not like, this country is amazing and this country sucks or anything
But in general I feel a lot safer here and I like that
because I like going for walks at night, and I like going jogging at night
and it's nice to not have to worry too much
In general I would say Japan is a safe country
to walk around at night time, you don't need to worry about getting mugged
That rarely, I don't think it ever happens here
I've never heard a story where someone attacked someone to try to steal their money
I do see a lot of signs for "hittakuri" in our city, like purse snatching
I've never seen that happen
But they have actual signs up here in some places
"Beware of hittakuri"
People wil ride along on a bicycle or a motorbike and grab your bag
So be careful of people stealing stuff
But that's not a common problem
Yeah I've never heard of that happening, so that surprised me when I saw those signs
So if you guy have any other questions related to this topic
Leave them down below
and me and Rachel will try to reply to some of those if we can!
Hope that was helpful for you guys
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And I will see you soon! Bye!