Being A Good Tourist

It will help you and others

Image source: The Japan Times

Noah Smith wrote a substack¹ recently about President Biden’s comment that Japanese were xenophobic which resulted in some comments where people said they had recently been denied service at Japanese businesses due to being foreigners.

This post is an expansion/modification of a comment I made there which is relevant to tourists in general, in Japan or not, but with Japanese specifics

The TL;DR summary

Don’t be a ****head.
You are not in Disney land (well unless you go here) and the locals around you are not there exclusively for you or other tourists.

People need to make a living

Japanese TV news programs have had a number of items recently about how the waves of inbound tourists are causing trouble for the locals.

A small cheap ramen shop (source)

One of the complaints (from ramen and similar cheap fastish food places) was that foreigners would take an hour over a bowl of ramen instead of 10-15 minutes as local customers do. If you are a small ramen shop, such as the one in the picture above, with 10 seats and four foreigners occupy seats for an hour during the lunchtime rush instead of 15 minutes you've lost some 12 servings out of a potential 40 which is a significant cut of your business. If you have multiple groups like during the day that you're in losing money territory. I suspect similar things drive some other businesses who don't welcome foreigners. They'd be happy to welcome foreigners as long as they don't lose money doing so, but if/when they start losing money they stop being so welcoming.

Another commenter explained how this should work:

Most restaurants, cafes, and bars anywhere in the world will be grateful (even if they don't specifically recognize it) if people judged how long they should stay based on how crowded the place is.

1. If a place is mostly empty, hanging out for a while is usually fine and can even have the unintended benefit of making it feel more lively and in-demand.

2. If a place is moderately busy, it's usually a good idea to vaguely pay attention to if things are filling up or not and judge accordingly.

3. And if it's busy, well, if someone is still ordering stuff then have at it, but if they've finished eating or drinking and are merely using a crowded place to chat and relax, then it might be time to consider leaving to open up a spot.

The same applies to other sorts of business and all over the world. You will be welcomed back (trust me, it’s happened to me multiple times) if you follow those rules and particularly rule 3 of leaving when you’re occupying a spot that someone else would like to occupy as a paying customer. Seriously if you find a great little hole in the wall restaurant and leave when it’s busy but come back at 4pm the next day when it isn’t, you’ll likely manage to have a conversation with the proprietor and possibly get a free something as “service” for your consideration.

I’ll add a couple of other things. First, in Japan small eateries tend to be run by one person or maybe two. Often customers are expected to help clear the dishes when they leave. There’ll usually be shelving by the serving counter with a sign (in Japanese, which you can’t read) on it saying to “please put your tray of used plates etc. here”. If you see other customers clearing their table when they finish do the same. This doesn’t just apply to small restaurants, many coffee shops - even Starbucks - expect this too and some hotels expect the same for breakfast for example. Second, a number of places actually have time limits for groups (generally more than 4) and will expect you to leave after a couple of hours because they are small places and want to serve others. Again this is likely to be written in Japanese and may be another reason why you as a group of foreigners may be refused entry - it only takes a couple of groups who fail to leave and fail to order much to make a place unwilling to risk further issues when they have plenty of other potential customers who they can actually communicate with.

While not occupying space when the place is busy and clearing up when you finish are restaurant specific things, the basic principles behind them apply everywhere in Japan. Related is the apparent insensitivity of tourists (not just in Japan) to the fact they are not in Disney world but in a real city with workers who need to go places etc. The various complaints and bans of tourists in parts of Kyoto are due to tourists apparently failing to understand this and thereby infuriating the locals.

If you are blocking the road (and yes roads are frequently narrow in Japan - walk single file if there’s traffic), blocking entrances or parking lots then you are part of the ugly tourist problem. If you dash across a busy street, hop over a fence, stand on a bus shelter bench etc. to get that perfect shot of something (Mt Fuji, the beach, the spot in the anime where …) you are being the ugly tourist. Don’t do this.

Be helpful, be mindful of others, be tidy, take your trash with you.
If you would be upset by anyone, especially a foreigner who does not speak your language, doing something outside your home, don’t do it when traveling.

As a foreigner who thinks more people should visit Japan and appreciate the place, I want Japan to remain as nice as it is even when there are lots of tourists. Having tourists that are sensitive to how Japan functions helps with that goal.

Chains Are A Safer Choice

Generally national chains are better than quirky individual businesses for getting what you want efficiently. This kind of goes against part of the charm of Japan - the large number of small eateries, drinkeries and quirky shops - but you probably don’t want to have to struggle to communicate all the time. Chain places tend to have clearer signs, may have English menus/translations and often have more space and more staff so you won’t be gumming up the works if you ask for help.

can you order from this menu?

Even today, there are plenty of places who are sure that their English is so poor they can't communicate with the foreign customers. This is rarer these days than it was, but it is still a thing and these places may decide they don’t want to deal with the hassle, or they may be willing but be reduced to pointing. I know some small izakaya owners who have told me they are grateful that I speak Japanese because they wouldn't know how to handle foreigners who can't speak (or perhaps more importantly, read) Japanese and so would be unable to order anything. If you don’t see why reading is an issue, see whether your smartphone app translate the menu above? Chain places tend not to have handwritten signs so they are usually machine translatable even if the button on the tablet menu that says “choose language” doesn’t.

Your smartphone can probably handle this

Don’t feel that you are missing out too much by eating at a chain place (or shopping at a convenience store or supermarket for that matter). Many chains have excellent food freshly prepared in popular (and delicious) Japanese styles. There are TV programs where their food (and that of the 3 big convenience store chains) is judged by top Michelin starred chefs and the like. Both the chefs and the chains take these shows very seriously and so, for that matter, do the Japanese customers. I have acquaintances who run convenience stores and they tell me that if, say, a cream cake is panned by the chefs sales of it will drop off sharply and a frozen pizza, say, that wins a clean sweep will sell out.

Quietness Is Goodness

The Japanese like quiet and not being disturbed by noise. One thing that will not endear you to the Japanese is being loud in public, which includes talking on your phone on the train². Yes you can do that, there’s probably not a law against it. No they mostly won’t complain to your face. But you are far more likely to be refused service if you stroll up in a loud group and I have witnessed a group of loud American tourists being told to leave a coffee shop because they didn’t tone it down when asked to. It is quite likely that some of the complaints by tourists that they have been refused service are because they are just obnoxiously loud or because previous groups were. On a related note, please don’t have a conversation on your phone in the toilet of whatever tourist attraction or business you are visiting. Yes it is slightly better than taking the call in the middle of the lobby but it’s still going to be considered uncouth. If you really have to talk to whoever it is, find an out of the way corner to stand in. Plus if you have your call in the toilet and I’m there I may decide to add color commentary.

Leave Your Luggage Behind

Almost every hotel will hold your luggage for the day before/after you stay for free and most train stations and other public transport hubs have lockers where you can leave your bags for a small fee. Take advantage of this. Not only is it easier to visit tourist attractions without lugging your bags around, you will make everyone around you happier too. Urban Japan simply isn’t designed to handle people dragging luggage around everywhere and many businesses don’t have the space to cope with customers with luggage. To be honest I thought this was basic common sense but I have seen signs at some tourist attractions (e.g. Matsue castle) saying that they won’t let people in with luggage. Really, you don’t want to do this and Japan makes it easy not to.

I would add that some hotels (but not the least expensive ones) will forward your luggage to your next destination (or perhaps next but one) so you don’t need to lug the bags around at all. The price depends on the size and weight of the bags but it’s usually a few thousand yen (in the US$50 area) and it is a massive stress reliever. Usually the Hotel Concierge or front desk staff will help you get the address right too

Hot Spring (Onsen) and Public Baths (Sento)

Almost every guide to Japan explains this, but it doesn’t hurt to have a reminder. When you visit a public bath/onsen please bear the following in mind:

• If you have (large) tattoos expect to be shunned, if not asked to leave. If they are visible when you are clothed you may be refused access. The tattoo taboo is not as strong as it used to be - I’ve seen Japanese people in Onsens with significant tattooing, but I’ve also seen other places with big signs saying “No Tattoos”

• Wash (or at least rinse) at one of the stalls first before getting into the bath

• (If male) shaving is fine, but for either sex cutting or dying your hair is not

• You will be naked. You may be asked to leave if you insist on wearing a bathing suit.

• Because you and everyone else are naked, the sexes are segregated. The sole exception to this is small children who may accompany the parent of the opposite sex. Occasionally the “small child” may be elementary school age but usually they are younger.

• Some Onsen Ryokan offer private baths, if you have a big tattoo or are uncomfortable naked in public consider booking one of those.

This substack post goes into Bathing Etiquette in far greater detail.

Not solely applicable to baths is the question of when to remove your shoes. In addition to baths, temples, shrines, some ryokans, some restaurants and occasionally other businesses (e.g. my dentist) will expect you to take off your shoes near the entrance. A good general guide (other than watch what someone else does) is to expect to remove them when you see a pile of slippers and/or removed shoes or where you see a collection of lockers/shelves to put your shoes on (sometimes you swap to slippers in the same shelves). Almost always the transition involves you stepping up from a stone/tile floor to a carpet/wood/tatami one. You may not get slippers - usually you don’t for small places like a single room or section of a restaurant but you probably will if it’s for the entire building.

Once you have made the transition to no shoes there’s an additional wrinkle for going to the toilet. Toilets often have special toilet slippers and the idea is you wear those slippers in the toilet and take them off when you leave. If (when) you forget to take them off someone will tell you. Do not feel too embarrassed when this happens - probably every single foreigner in Japan has done this at least once and many Japanese have too (I’ve witnessed multiple Japanese do it over the years)

Don’t Be The Law

In general you will only make things worse if you observe what looks like it might be a crime and try to stop it, or even to be a good Samaritan in some other way. There are exceptions to this - spotting some pervert with his penis out is probably a valid call to action - but short of that level of clear criminality don’t.

For example, there could be a gaijin pedophile who abducts Japanese children but it is far more likely that when you see an obviously foreign man and an apparent Japanese child that the foreigner is actually the child’s father and the child does not in fact need rescuing from that person.

Similarly, if you find a dropped wallet or other valuables on the street be very very cautious about picking it up because other people may think you are the thief. If you do pick up the dropped wallet, take it immediately to the nearest police box if outside or the reception of the building if indoors and don’t try looking inside for a contact number because that could easily be misinterpreted as rifling through it for cash.

Also (and this should be obvious) don’t pick a fight. Even if drunk. Even olympic athletes get arrested for this sort of thing.

You should recall that the Japanese police have a 99% conviction rate for crimes and that there is absolutely no reason to assume that they get the actual criminal 99% of the time. You, as a foreigner, may in fact make a suitable suspect and the police may decide you are so suitable that they don’t bother looking for the real crook. In general even law-abiding Japanese people strive to minimize their contacts with the law, you should too.

Enjoy Japan

Despite all these warnings, Japan is actually a great place to visit. There is effectively zero street crime and it is full of beauty, culture and fun things to see and do. Take advantage of the cheap yen to be one of the 3 million tourists a month to visit and please look at other posts on this substack to get ideas about places to visit and things to do

1. Japan is not a xenophobic country

2. For more on train etiquette read this

Ride like a local