Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/19/tokyo-nightlife-scams-how-to-avoid-the-sneaky-tricks-of-the-kyakuhiki.html
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Meanwhile, if a tourist were to want to avail themselves of the services at a fashion health (or soapland, or deli health, etc.) they’d almost certainly be politely turned away.
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A former coworker told me a story about how he and his Japanese wife were in some big city in Japan, and some kyakuhiki directed them to a “maid cafe,” which, when they entered it, was clearly not a maid cafe. They didn’t stick around to find out what, exactly, it was. It seemed less a case of “tout as scammer” and more as spam email - they obviously didn’t care that everyone they misdirected would immediately see they weren’t where they wanted to be, they were just hoping that some (extremely small) percentage of them would stick around anyways.
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I was near the diplomatic core / embassy row in Tokyo when a recruiter for a massage service approached me. Guessing this was -not- a scam given where they were located. I didn’t find out.
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This was an actually a side story in one of the Yakuza games although the specific one escapes me right now. Except this was in Kamurocho, the series’ fictionalized (but highly accurate) version of Kabukicho.
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I, a gai-jin, was walking alone down a little street in Tokyo in November. All the food smelled good and there were pachinko parlors I walked past. Then a young Japanese dude ran up to me and said what sounded like Koo-ga-rooz! And he pointed toward a pachinko parlor. I had no idea what was going on, what he was saying. “See koo-ga-rooz!” I said I didn’t know…err…wakarimasen…ehhh…gomen nasai!
He finally gave up and let me go.
As I walked on a think I figured it out: “School girls.” Not innarested. If that was what it was. I mean, what else could it have been?
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Couldn’t find anywhere to stay apart from Kabukicho? Really? Does Kabukicho even have regular hotels? Did you take your family to a love hotel?
Is there a badge I’m unaware of for most number of questions asked by a just-asking-questions-guy new user?
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Why is the art used in the post look like one of those bad ads for a mobile game? Where you got to fix up an old mansion or something?
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Oddly last I was there is everyone pulling these scams seemed to be Nigerian, not Japanese or Korean.
(A lot of Yakuza are from Korea or have Korean ancestry)
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I’d be surprised if variants of these scams are not tried in virtually all cities that have seamy bars. I have certainly seen it in Hong Kong, Marseille, Paris, Barcelona and London.
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I learned the best way to deal with kyakuhiki is to “gray rock” them—completely ignore them.
Good advice for dealing with street scammers anywhere. They’re trying to take advantage of a basic human social impulse to engage and co-operate with others. I tell the young people in my life that they’re under no obligation to engage with any random person who accosts them.
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I once had a guy approach me in Shinjuku and ask me if I wanted to have sex with young girls. I pretended not to understand him, so he asked me the same in French, then German, then Russian. I was impressed with how many languages he went through.
I kept pretending not to understand him but acting like I was trying really hard to understand him.
He never tried Japanese.
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Try answering in Irish. Nior mhaith liom é sin ar fad. Cad atá cearr leat?
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I’ve actually found that answering in Mandarin works pretty well just about everywhere in Asia.
There’s no misunderstanding a blunt 不要.
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Not a badge… but…
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Oh good, or I was going to have to start another account to try and snag it. Flags aren’t so collectable.
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Quite a few actually. The area may be a bit seedy (only at night, I should add), but you can’t beat that location.
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Of course there are regular hotels, like multiple APA hotels, and Hotel Gracery right by the giant Godzilla. It’s still a big tourist destination area and it’s a stone’s throw from of the world’s busiest train stations.
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