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Just wanted to give "heads up" to anyone who might be going to Dynaland that you need to lock your stuff!

 

My assistant's snowboard got ripped-off during lunch today. We did not lock our boards so we are partly to blame.

 

The management told us that 2 other boards were also stolen today during the early afternoon.

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Japan a really safe place?

 

Dream on.

 

Read the papers...leaving aside the Big Ones like the sarin gas attack on the subway, not a day goes by here when I don't see news about stabbings, slashings, fatal- or near-fatal baseball-bat bashings of homeless people...a couple of weeks ago a bomb went off in a park trashcan, blowing the arm and leg off a bystander. I saw a pic of the aftermath, him lying in the dirt in a sea of blood with smoke coming off his charred flesh...a very safe country.

 

Last summer there were stories every couple of days about yakuza shootings in Ginza...actually shooting in the streets crowded with innocent bystanders.

 

I regularly see fistfights on train platforms, where I used to live every Sunday at 3 a.m. a gang of 100 or more "boso-zoku" bikers would come roaring slowly by on the wrong side of the street, going about 8-10 kph...they all carry baseball bats and golf clubs and rev their engines.

 

I lived right next to the Omori Police Stn., and when I looked out the window the cop that stands in front of the station with a big stick in his hand was just standing there watching them go by.

 

A very safe country!!

 

As for theft, forget about it. There are as many thieves, shoplifters and pickpockets here as anywhere else.

 

Within three months of arriving here in 1995, I had someone steal about $500 cash from my locker on the 9th floor of this company's building. You can't get up to 9 without a visitor's card, and no visitor would ever go into the locker room, but when I reported the theft to my boss I was told "It must have been a foreigner..." (I was the only foreigner on that floor...what, did I steal my own money?)

 

I wanted to make a police report, but was told "Don't report this to the police, it makes the company look bad..."

 

So many crimes go unreported here for similar reasons.

 

I've lived here for 6 years, and in that time here's how many things I've had ripped off:

 

--2 locked bicycles

 

--1 bike almost stolen but I chased the kid away

 

--$500 from my company locker

 

--One MS Word 2000 CD from my company locker

 

--5-6 motorcycle winker lights

 

--2 motorcycle covers

 

--1 tent fly as I slept at a campsite

 

--2 motorcycle mirrors

 

--1 cell phone

 

--1 base guitar from my apartment

 

--$200 + Mag Lite from my tent at a mtn. party

 

Well that's about it.

 

To perspectivize this: I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and here is a list of the crimes I witnessed or suffered there:

 

--somebody stole some scissors from my school locker when I was 13

 

--A man with a gun ran by outside a shop when I was 21, with police in pursuit.

 

Now I ask you, what's all this BS about Japan being a "safe" country, no crime?

 

Ask my girlfriend how many times she's been molested on the train, someone stole all her panties from her balcony clothesline, and yes she was raped once too.

 

Great!!

 

A safe country!!

 

Lock 'em up, boys, this place is no different than anywhere else.

 

Except here, "it must have been a foreigner who did it".

 

Yeah right.

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For those of you not in Japan, theft of women's underwear and groping are rife. Like most rapes, they normally go unreported.

 

Theft from cars (shajo nerai) is on the increase too. My gf lost a bag containing viddy camera (thankfully insured) and her passenger side window (not covered) back in August. The car was outside my house. I know several other people who've had similar experiences, and I've noticed more and more restaurants putting up warning signs in their car parks.

 

Just a personal theory, but Yahoo Auctions and Ebay provide an easy way for thieves to dump stolen gear. Traditionally there hasn't been such a big market for second hand stuff, but that looks like its changing. "Recycle" shops and flea markets also on the increase.

 

Anyway, I'd lock your board/skis if I were you.

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one of my favorite things to do is to

put my unlocked board

in plain site.

 

I watch from a safe distance and it usually

doesn't take too long for someone to grab it.

 

Then I run up and bashem silly. It's

a great sport, really.

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Are you guys kidding, I have lived here for 10 years and have never had one thing ever stolen, ever. I've left things at stations and came back and got them I have left bags on the platform and gone off to buy other things and come back and nothing is missing. This guy that has had all this stuff happen to him must have had some awful luck. Of course Japan has its share of thugs and idiots but nothing close to the United States and other parts of the world. This is without a doubt the safest country in the world.

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.. I've had my running shoes(brand new New Balance worth around $80.00) stolen at an Izekaya about a year and a half ago... Now I always put my shoes in a plastic bag and bring them to my table... yeah.. and I thought Japan was safe. I live in Shizuoka City, which is suburbia/country area.. go figure??

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three years in Swansea, South Wales:

•one friend hospitalized by five guys on a night out

•witnessed numerous fights, not the slam 'n tickle, push and shove type you get in Japan

•two flat mates cars stolen and burned by joyriders

•three cars damaged by joy rider crashing down our street

•one joy rider caught in a trip and beaten senseless by local vigilanties

•house burgled twice

•theft of anything on my mtn bike not locked down, including QR bolts!

 

These are not crimes in a newspaper, these are all from personal experience. I wont get started on my home town in SW England.

 

In Japan, two bike seats stolen out side gaijin bars. A sum total for seven years in Japan.

 

I love this country, it has it's faults, but the need to always watch your back, your stuff, etc. not really one of them. Hope it doesnt change too much.

 

Thats all I can remember,

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I'm not saying Japan is a dangerous country, just pointing out that it is not the perfectly safe, honest, crime-free haven many love to think it is.

 

Aside from my personal experiences, there are so many unreported crimes here that you can't really believe the crime statistics.

 

And, as Ocean11 correctly pointed out, what about all the white-collar crime, political corruption, yakuza/politician/bank shady activities?

 

My company, a major Japanese manufacturer, paid off corporate racketeers for decades until it was exposed a few years back, along with dozens of other major companies. I used to see the gangsters come up and talk to the head of our Gen. Affairs Dept.

 

Now don't think this is all over just because my company was on TV and some people were arrested. I heard the gangsters still periodically come around.

 

Other areas to consider under the rubric of "safety" are environmental considerations (this country is full of smokestacks burning rubbish and spewing out dioxin, filthy smoggy illegal oil mix in the trucks on the roads, lax standards for water and food (seen those articles about the poisons in the on-roof water tanks? The lax inspections left up to building owners?), groundwater and soil contamination, etc.

 

These problems are not specific to Japan, but in this country consumer activism, environmental litigation, government enforcement, special action committees and watchdog organizations are really quite weak and ineffectual.

 

Other countries also have these problems, some much worse, but it really is untrue to go around saying "what a safe country Japan is!", because that is not the reality.

 

It's just a country like any other and you have to watch yourself sometimes.

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I'll have to jump in on the "Japan is a very safe country side". Badmigrain you have gone from the subject of having things be stolen to organized crime, white collar crime and political corruption to try and prove your point. Nobody said there wasn't a lot of corruption in Japan as there may be in many other countries. But saying Japan is just as dangerous as any other country is a completely false statement. Compare it to other countries crime rates, there is no comparrison. Let's face it Japan is a very safe country and the average person rarely encounters any crime.

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thoroughbread, you are a scream.

 

This thread started out by somebody saying their companion had had a board stolen. And here you are saying "Let's face it Japan is a very safe country and the average person rarely encounters any crime." Except when they have their board stolen.

 

And you also say "But saying Japan is just as dangerous as any other country is a completely false statement." Nobody has said that. Indeed, they have carefully not said that.

 

Well, you can save money on a lock if you want, but I've got one...

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Who is this Ocean11? are you the master of the site? or just some obnoxious dude??? What do you do spend your time combing through every post until you find some one you can piss off??

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thoroughbred, pissed off are you? What, you want to be able call badmigraine on what he says in a forum and not get called yourself? There are people talking about their experiences of crime in this country, and you just say pah to it all. Think that doesn't piss them off??

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There is without a doubt a fair amount of crime in Japan and it kind of amuses me that people get upset when confronted with this reality. Japan may indeed seem to be a safe country to varying degrees when compared with others but those who assume it's all peachy here are ignorant of the facts. The Japan=safe equation has long been trotted out by the gullible and naive, and the fact that to a large degree it is lulls people into a false sense of security. Lock up your board and you will be far less likely to experience the pain of losing it. I can't see why people want to perpetuate such myths when it's so obviously not true that all of Japan is safe even most of the time.

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If Japan was supposed to be a safe place why would they need to sell locks in the first place?

 

If you look at it like this, I would say the answer was pretty simple.

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I don't think anyone is saying there is no crime in Japan, but if someone would wise up and look at the statistics it is much safer than most other countries. Simple as that.

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I am sure the sales figures for locks in Japan compared to those in Europe and the US would tell the story quite clearly.

 

Clearly Japan is "getting worse" but is still much "safer" than other countries I could mention.

 

Doesn't mean to say you don't need to look after stuff though - us gaijin should be quite good at that though shouldn't we, coming from the crime-kunis we do!!

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Anyone else had any problems in Japan with this? I never see any skis or boards locked up here, no one seems to bother. Never even seen any locks on sale prominently anywhere either.

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Only people I see locking their boards are gaijins. But you can buy locks in Alpen, Xebio and the like. My snowboard insurance requires my board to have been locked.

 

Standard lock wires could be cut with a stout pair of scissors, or any pliers. But as a precaution against the grab and ride impulse, it'll work. As will the hex I have cast on my board ... don't be found on the big ride with the fish bones stomp pad - madness and death will strike before you're even off the slope.

 

[This message has been edited by Ocean11 (edited 09 February 2002).]

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BARSTUDS...they broke into my car yesterday while I was surfing and took everything that was inside even my towel...I couldn't dry myself and I had no clothes to change into, they even took some of my ski-wear which I brought along for extra warmth.

 

I had a 2hr drive home in my wetsuit with a broken window and an empty stomach, I had $10 stashed in my ashtray which they missed but I needed that for petrol.

 

They took over NZ$2000 worth of MY stuff, that might not be alot for you guys earning Yen, but I only earn NZ$.

 

Dosen't matter what sport you do, if expensive equipment is involved then there's gonna be someone with their eye on your gear waiting for you to take your eye off...

 

Ki o tsukete

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