Locker
Japanese train stations, supermarkets, and lots of other public places often have lockers available for public use. For 100-300 yen you can put your stuff in for 5 hours or so and take away a key. I left my stuff in there a little too long one day and was worried that it might be gone when I got back. But then I remembered that the chance of someone stealing my stuff was about the same as me stealing stuff from a locker I’d find open. It just wouldn’t happen. When I got back to the locker, I was expecting to find it unlocked, but in fact, it was still locked! The only difference was that I needed to put in more money (a whole 100 yen) to get my stuff back out.
I wish we’d have lockers like that in San Francisco or in Ireland, but I can imagine people breaking into them or making off with them. On the bus on the way home from the airport I got a funny smell. Some girls in the back were smoking marijuana and talking about their probation. I know lots of people who genuinely enjoy the “colourful” citizens of San Francisco but a middle-class white college kid like me can do without that…
August 27th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
The criminal tendencies of the westerns in comparison to Japanese people mean that many things that work in Japan just aren’t economically viable in the west as westerners will just completely abuse the system and wreck it. It’s basically a tragedy of the commons.
There’s so many costs to dealing with this barbaric behavior, both economically and in less directly measurable metrics, such as stress and psychological trauma. It’s another plain as day example of why Japan rocks!
Great post!