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Re: [tlug] [OT] Interesting info for foreigners living in JP



Curt Sampson wrote:

Far from it. I know several gaijin who regularly get stopped when going
down that particular street in the evenings. If you want to get stopped
by the police, it's an easy way to do it.

Oh, a challenge! This sounds like fun ... not. To be sort of fair, Shinjuku-sho is one of the places newly minted patrolmen get dumped for "seasoning." They're a real PITA to deal with as you are supposed to let every one of them have a shot at Engrish intellogation tekunikku.


Mukashi-mukashi, I worked at Dentsu, just around the corner from Chuo-ku's Tsukijii-sho. You could not go to lunch without taking out your torokusho -- which was the old brown 16-page book -- and showing it to the trainees that were planted out in front. We'd have an hour for lunch, but it usually took us 15~20 minutes to run the gauntlet of trainees. There would be an old junsa bucho bowing and making "gomen nasai" hand waves and we'd usually have a couple of Japanese AEs along who would end up heaping abuse on the poor guy. One of the Account Executives got the bright idea to invite each new intake of trainees over to Dentsu Honsha and let them "inspect" all of our torokusho in the main hall, followed by a lunch -- in exchange for having them leave us alone out on the street. Dentsu got an award for "community service," all the gaijin got a free lunch about once a month, and none of us got stopped ever again.

That's why you go proactive and make it easier for them to stop someone else and practice. Believe me, you get remembered with little or no effort, and it doesn't have to be negative for either of you.

I don't belive it's something about me as an individual in particular.

Probably not.

For example, I've never been stopped and searched in Shibuya, despite
walking around Shibuya pretty much every day (I live there), though I
frequently (several times a week) see others being stopped and searched,
both gaijin and nihonjin.

Shibuya-sho has gotten a lot of bad press for "allowing" a flourishing drug trade. A couple of news programs got seriously on their case one because you are a difficult customer.or two years back and it cost the then-shocho his promotion and career. Drug stops and solicitation checks are based on pattern recognition. Act another way and you become invisible ... as you probably already know.


Well, it's not a problem I can't live with. I have no intention of
taking the Arudo approach to this sort of thing, in part because I
really don't want to pay the costs of that. I'm merely glad that
someone's working to move this society towards one that is more fair to
outsiders.

I can tell you that his methods cause more irritation and bewilderment than anything else. I've been asked about him and also been asked just how typical he is. I usually assure the people asking that other gaijin also think he's a turkey and that he'd be a misfit in America, too. That usually calms things down. I do not want people mistaking me for him.


Thank you for your advice on how to deal with this, by the way; were I
going to take the time to do more than show my gaijin card, wait for
him to check the bike license, and move on, I would certainly take your
approach.

Well, it is more a case of whether you mind being stopped or whether you want to make the stopping go away. If you are satisfied with the way it is working now, I wouldn't stop doing it that way.


Just don't start telling them what the law says and what your rights are ...

--
CL


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