- Hey guys, it's Kim Dao here.
Welcome back to my channel.
So the past couple of weeks
I have been putting out some Japan videos,
that I guess I have been saving up over the past a year.
After every video,
I always ask you guys to give me a video suggestions
on what you would like me to do.
So a lot of you guys actually asked me to make a video,
on how safe Japan is to travel to as a woman,
when you're going alone.
As you guys know, I do travel to Japan very often.
About 95% of the time I travel alone.
Have asked me if I had any scary experiences.
I'm just going to talk about them today in this video.
This is going to be a chatty video,
just talking about my personal experiences
and experiences of others traveling in Japan,
or living in Japan as well.
About like five or six years ago,
I made a video on how safe Japan is,
and I mentioned in that video,
that Japan is a safest country I've ever traveled to,
and that hasn't changed.
Of course, when you travel, it doesn't matter where you are,
it doesn't matter how safe the country is,
having common sense is the most important thing.
What I mean by that is,
even though I said Japan is the safest country
I've ever traveled to,
that doesn't mean you should just walk down
random dark alleyways just because,
supposedly it's a safe country.
So like I said, when I travel to Japan,
I usually go alone.
Because what?
I go very often and most of the time it's for work.
There have been times where a friend,
or my husband, or sister would travel with me,
but that's only on the rare occasion.
It's because if the trip is solely for work,
I don't want to drag people around with me
because it's just not fun for them.
It's like a waste of time, a waste of a trip.
So the first time I went to Japan alone was when I was 22,
eight years ago.
That was when Liz Liza wanted to work with me
and wanted to fly me to Japan, to meet them.
I remember at that time, my parents were very scared,
because it would be my first trip overseas, alone.
I also was a little scared,
but also I was quite confident
because I have been to Japan twice before that.
So I knew my way around.
I had basic Japanese knowledge at that time,
the trip was fine.
I ran into no issues.
And because of that trip,
after that, I was traveling alone a lot
to many other countries.
In other countries, I did run into some issues,
which I will go into a bit later,
but for now I'm just going to focus on Japan.
So walking around Japan alone as a woman,
I can confidently say that
there is no other place in the world
where I feel as safe as I do in Japan.
I can walk around alone at nighttime, no problem.
Say if I was really hungry at midnight,
and I wanted to grab something at 7-Eleven,
I would have no issue just going down the street
and going to my local 7-Eleven,
picking up some food and walking back.
The only time I did have an issue,
where there was a guy following me,
was about eight years ago.
I was at Ikebukuro cross-station
and I was walking with my friend.
We were going from the station to go back to our hostel.
We were speaking in English
and I noticed there was a guy
who was matching our walking pace.
So I asked my friend to walk slower.
She didn't know what was going on.
She was like, "Oh sorry,"
and walked really slow.
I noticed that he also did the same.
At that point I knew he was trying to follow us.
So I let my friend know,
and we walked into a convenience store
to just kind of buy some time and walk around a bit.
He followed us into the convenience store.
I think we only stayed in there for like five minutes.
I bought some stuff.
Then I noticed there was a police box outside.
We just went to the police box and stood outside.
I saw him go out of the convenience store.
I don't know if he noticed us or not.
It was kind of dark and it was like across the road,
but he eventually walked off.
So I waited there for an extra 10 minutes
until I knew it was safe to go back to our hostel.
That was the only weird stalking incident I had in Japan,
and that was like in 2012, eight years ago.
Since then I've traveled to Japan, maybe about 20 times.
I've lived in Japan for a year and a half,
and that has never happened again.
I guess if you are in Japan or any country,
and you notice that someone's following you,
I would immediately go to a place where it's crowded,
where there's lots of people around.
Also because now smartphones are a thing these days,
get someone you know on the phone,
talk to them.
Talk to them on loud speaker if you can as well,
just so they would know.
If something were to happen,
then you know your friend on the phone would be suspicious.
Even though I said that I feel very safe
walking around Japan at nighttime,
I always still have like an eye out for my surroundings.
You just always have to make sure just in case.
I do remember back in the day,
if you were a woman walking alone in Shibuya,
you will always get approached by many guys.
I've seen it's happened to many Japanese woman as well,
and most of the time,
they just keep walking and ignoring them
until the guys give up.
But some of these guys are so persistent.
They don't give up, which really annoys me.
Like they were literally followed a woman
for like maybe a hundred meters down the streets.
My trick to get rid of them is,
if they approach me, I just say to them in English,
"Sorry, I don't speak Japanese,"
and just pretend you don't understand
what the hell they're saying,
and they will walk off pretty quickly.
These days it doesn't happen as often as it used to.
I wrote a story where police
have actually been tracking that,
so I realized over the past couple of years,
it happens nowhere near as often as it used to.
If you are with someone else,
it's less likely it will happen.
But honestly,
they usually approach you in a very public place.
So you can just ignore them, walk off,
or tell them no, they won't do any harm to you
because there's so many people around.
So even though Japan is very safe,
there are of course dodgy places
that you probably should avoid.
Just like every country, there are tourist traps.
Places that are there just to rip you off.
If you had been to Japan in the recent years
and have been walking around Shinjuku
to Kabukicho especially,
you might hear an announcement that is said in English,
I can't remember exactly what the announcement said
but it was something along the lines of,
"Be careful, don't get scammed,
don't follow people to bars and all.
This has never happened to me either,
because I don't go to too many bars,
but I have heard of some cases
where foreigners would go into a bar
and get charged like $100 US, for a beer.
I also heard another story where a guy just got scammed.
They forced him to go to the ATM,
and withdraw a lot of money,
and they took all of it apparently.
Once again, these are just stories I've heard.
I've never actually seen or experienced this myself.
Also keep in mind that these announcements
are there in Kabukicho for a reason.
So just be careful.
Like in Japan, some bars had a bar charge,
usually around five to $10 at most.
That's normal.
And also if you're walking around Kabukicho,
which is like the party area,
you will see lots of guys walking around,
trying to get people to go to their bars.
Not all of them are dodgy.
Sometimes you can get some really good deals.
I was with a group of maybe eight people,
we got an all you can drink package for 1,500 Yen,
around $15 for an hour, which isn't bad.
He originally said 2,000 Yen
and we just bargained it down to $15.
You can also back in at karaoke places
and they might give you a deal.
But yeah once again,
just be really careful of being overcharged.
I've never had any of these issues with big chains,
or bars or karaoke,
but once again, just use common sense.
Also, I should mention that I'm not really a party person.
I don't hang out at these party areas at night,
like in Shinjuku, Shibuyu, and Roppongi very often.
So maybe because of that,
I never ran into such situations.
I've actually seen this happen,
but I was in Kabukicho
and there was a group of foreigner guys,
just in front of me,
they were just walking,
minding their own business,
and then suddenly there was like a group of people
trying to stop them,
and trying to drag them into their bars.
I knew straight away it was a scam.
I knew that they would try and charge them a lot of money.
I think eventually the guys just kept walking
and the guys were trying to get them to go into the bar.
Kept following for a bit,
but because they just kept walking and showed no interest,
in the end they just gave up.
I just wanna talk a bit about transport.
So for taxis,
I've taken taxis many times in Japan and never had an issue.
Yes taxis are expensive,
but they all just use a meter
and you just pay whatever it says at the end of your trip.
I've heard times where some taxi drivers
would even give me a discount.
In Japan, I've never had an issue of people scamming me.
I have been scammed in Korea once.
I was meant to pay $4 for a five minute ride,
and then the guy charged me $40.
I didn't know any better and I just paid it.
But I have had some people that wrote comments on my videos
saying that they did get scammed in Osaka
a few times from taxis.
Personally I have never had that happen,
but yeah, just make sure that you're paying
exactly what is on the meter,
and make sure the taxi driver has the meter on
whilst you are on your trip.
The next thing I want to talk about is groping on train.
So this is a big one.
I get asked this a lot.
Has this ever happened to me?
"No."
I've been in packed trains
and not once has it happened to me.
However, I do know of some friends
where this has happened to them.
So I'm not saying that it doesn't happen.
I am aware of my surroundings when I'm overseas,
and I find that especially if I'm alone,
my guard is off and I do have a resting bitch face.
My friends have come up to me when I was waiting for them
and have asked me,
"Hey Kim, are you pissed off at something?"
And I'm like, "No, this is my normal face."
(chuckles)
Maybe that's why it has never happened
because maybe I look like I'm about to punch someone,
so people just avoid me.
Oh yeah.
A funny (chuckles) story, actually in the train in Japan.
I was on a moving train,
and I was standing at the end of the carriage
and the train suddenly made a stop
and I felt like I was going to fall over.
I quickly tried to grab a hand rail, I missed,
punched a guy in the face by accident.
I was like horrified.
I was like bowing to him,
and I was like, "I'm so sorry,"
but he just laughed it off
and said it was okay because,
well, it was an accident.
So phew, that was so embarrassing.
A lot of people saw that.
But anyway, my friends who have had this happen to them,
one of them who is Japanese,
told me when she was in high school,
it would happen at least twice a week.
It usually is during peak hour,
where you can't really tell who did it.
She said as a Japanese, she would just stay quiet
and not cause a scene.
I've heard from other people
and I'm sure you guys would have as well,
that in Japanese culture, you don't cause a scene
because it would be a nuisance to other people.
Which I find in this case to be really wrong,
and I'm sure most of you guys would be feeling angry
because when that happens,
you shouldn't stay quiet about it,
but you also have to understand that,
you may say to yourself,
"Oh, if it happened to me,
"I might just yell out and scream at them
"and cause a scene."
But when it actually happens to you,
you might just freeze and not know what to do.
I say this because, this has actually happened to me
once in Australia before,
when I was working in retail,
I froze because I didn't know what was happening
at the time.
I always told myself before that I would yell out,
I would scream, but I didn't.
I did however tell my manager who called the police.
But yeah, I don't blame the culture for not speaking up,
because you never know until it actually happens to you.
End of the story is that I have taken many peak hour trains
and they were packed to the point
where you're squished like sardines,
but it has not happened to me.
But I'm not saying that it doesn't happen
because unfortunately it does.
Now pick pocketing.
So Japan is one of the only places in the world
where I would feel comfortable
just to leave my stuff at a table, to serve at a cafe.
Honestly, if you do that anywhere else in the world,
your stuff will probably get stolen.
People do this all the time in Japan
and no one touches your stuff.
So I find Japanese people to be very honest.
I have lost a bunch of stuff in Japan before
and have always gotten it back.
So for example, my passport that's right.
My dumb ass lost my passport a couple of years ago in Tokyo.
I was walking around in a park,
taking photos and videos of soccer.
It was raining that day.
So I was pulling my camera in and out of my bag.
My passport must have fallen out then.
I didn't realize until a few days later.
Replacing a lost or stolen Australian passport was like $600
because you have to pay a penalty fee,
every time you lose one.
So the next day I backtracked to all the restaurants,
shops, cafes I went to, no luck.
Eventually I went to the police station in Roppongi,
the big one,
and I spoke to a police woman.
She got my details, told me to wait,
and five minutes later,
she comes out and says, "I found it."
And I was like, "What?"
Any other country, they would just have taken my passport
and kept it.
I got my passport back.
I've also lost my camera,
just forgotten it at a restaurant,
and I went back in, the staff had it, gave it back to me.
There was even a time I was at a restaurant,
and it was one of those restaurants
where you choose your meal on a ticket machine first,
you pay then sit down.
I had some change given to me from the machine,
like, I don' know $2 worth.
I ate my food with my friends, left.
I forgot the coins on the table.
The staff actually chased me down to give me back my money.
That's how honest they are.
In Japan of course,
even though the chance you will get pick-pocketed
is very, very, very low,
still keep a guard up just to be safe.
The only time where someone tried to pick pocket me
was when I was in Paris.
I had a bag that was on my side,
and I saw a woman come up to me,
and she was holding a folder over my bag.
I turned to look at her,
she made eye contact with me and then walked away.
Nothing happened,
but I'm pretty sure she was trying to open my bag,
and the folder was just to cover so I couldn't see it.
Actually in Paris, my very first time I was there alone
was in 2013.
I was there for work and I was only there for four days,
but I had one day free to sight-see.
So I was going to the cafes, tourist see sites and all,
but for me, if someone talks to me in another country
or anywhere, usually I'm really friendly back
unless you were being an asshole.
Quite a lot of people talk to me,
and it was really nice.
But I had two guys offer to drive me to the airport.
Of course I declined
because work was paying for my taxi anyway.
I don't think I ever mentioned this on my channel before,
but I felt really weird like,
"You just met me.
"You don't know me.
"So why do you wanna give me a ride to the airport?"
I just politely declined and I was like,
"No, sorry.
"This is my last day in Paris.
"I've got a lot of things I want to see.
"So bye."
In most countries when I travel,
I do make sure I get back home before dark if I'm alone.
In Japan, I don't really care as much because,
there have been so many times
where I've taken the last train at like 1:00a.m.,
then had to walk home.
That's pretty much all I wanted to say in this video.
Obviously because of these times,
we cannot travel to Japan anytime soon.
But if you are planning a trip to go to Japan next year,
whether you're male, female, it doesn't really matter,
all you need to do is just have common sense,
make sure of your surroundings,
don't follow random people into bars
if they are forcing you to.
Just remember to stay safe no matter where you are.
Hopefully that we can all travel next year.
Oh, I just wanna travel somewhere so bad.
But yeah, hopefully you guys enjoyed this video.
Thank you so much for watching
if you made it all the way till the end.
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Bye guys.
(upbeat music)