Major cities in Japan are busy places
Lots of people coming and going especially at a popular tourist spot like Sky Tree
As it's bound to happen you get hungry and want a bite to eat
Then you notice a situation like this
some perfectly respectable bags occupying the table that you'd like to sit at
As you hunt around for a free spot you start to notice a trend an umbrella hanging out all by itself unattended baby strollers
Lonely handbags a stray jacket an abandoned bag this forgotten suitcase and camera
What's to stop hungry shoppers like this from snatching up a coveted spot?
Anything literally anything left on the chair or table?
So I decided to take my daughter and a GoPro to the mall to see what would happen if I left our belongings to save
a seat
What did we leave a purse a smartphone and a bag full of newly bought goods
After noticing that cameras were all over the place I decided that the best disguise for a secret camera
recording was to do it in plain sight so I staged the table with all sorts of camera gear
Okay. So it's not exactly a super-secret spy camera setup, but I think you'll get the point
I love while recording someone decide to leave their belongings to save their table my daughter Aiko's biggest opposition to this whole experiment is
That we'd be occupying extra seats that others could use
She didn't seem to have much concern that her belongings might actually get stolen and I concur we were being quite rude
So I apologize to anyone looking for a table during that time
We recorded a whole hour before I decided to call the whole thing off
Because the most likely scenario was that the cleaning staff would notice our unattended goods and put it in the lost and found
So Aiko and I packed up her belongings and headed to Starbucks because it's not like we hadn't sat around enough
While there the trend of seats being saved by valuables continued shopping bags backpacks
purses fanny packs even making a comeback
I see I also noticed that there are many people working on their laptops thus began experiment number two
What would happen if I left my macbook pro to save my spot?
I'll save you the suspense
absolutely nothing
25 minutes into this grueling experiment we called it quits
Who knew sitting in front of a sunny window would get so hot this spy thing can be quite tough?
Moral of the story if you're a thief looking for some easy pickings. Japan's the place to be or is it?
Apparently the Japanese police have more patience than Aiko or I in an effort to net themselves a thief
They left the case of beer in the seat of an unlocked car
After a week a whole week of carefully staking out the spot
They finally caught themselves a criminal
My only major issue in Japan with leaving my belongings behind is that I forget to retrieve them
There was that time when I left my backpack on the train
Then the other time where I did it again in both cases the train staff had my goods found within an hour
I must say though that there was this one time where I went to ride my bike and discovered it was missing
I thought to myself that I was finally getting my come-up-pance for leaving my stuff laying around as
it happens it turns out I left my bike parked and
Unlocked in front of the kids school and had forgotten to ride it back home
I know this because as I was telling the story of my lost bike to my wife
Aiko chimed in to say that she had seen it in front of her school over the past couple of days
She said the bike even had a notice on it to move it within a day
Or it would be impounded. Did Aiko think to tell her father this before? No.
So I went to the bike jail and sure enough my bike was there that lapse in attentiveness cost me 3,000 yen. So far,
that's the only price i've ever paid for leaving my valuables around that end the train tickets
I had to buy to go and retrieve my backpack twice from the train stations Lost and Found Depot
The lesson here folks is that by all means leave your valuables to save your spot in Japan. In fact,
I think the more valuable the better. That's why I always leave my kids to save mine
Thanks for watching. See you next time. Bye! How do you save your spot where you're from?