Took a trip to osaka castle and an older man approached me and started asking me where im from, what i did in japan etc… He had a sketch book and asked to draw the state to see if he could guess. He was really nice but wasnt sure what his intentions were.
About 15 minutes later another man approached me and asked me similar questions, but this guy made me some origami.
After I walked away i watched him for a minute, he looked like he was searching for someone else to talk too.
Im a pretty big guy so I wasnt scared of them doing anything, but random men approaching me asking questions raises red flags for me.
Are they just bored guys who want to chat with people?
32 comments
Probably just a desire to socialize, practice English, and meet new people.
Um…people being friendly?
Where are you from that this is unusual for you?
From what I can tell, there’s a ton of elderly in Japan, and most are lonely and some have minimal contact with family. So maybe they’re just trying to socialize.
Not that I’ve had this experience, but the elderly in Japan is kind of a hot topic. (Loneliness, more dying off than babies being born, etc.)
This was pre-covid, it’s probably even worse at this point.
Retired guys in Japan would stop my husband and I to talk regularly, not just Osaka. My husband speaks Japanese pretty much fluently and I understand a good bit, so other people would often join in. It was never a problem and often they had good advice on everything from food to train tables.
Come on man!
Just go with it.
I Never have trouble talking to an elderly person regardless of where I am. They’re probably lonely. Especially now.
I recall an older guy approaching me and talking to me outside Osaka Castle too. And I recall wondering what the “catch” was, when he was going to try to scam me, etc.
In most countries, when locals randomly walk up to Western tourists and try to engage them in conversation at tourist spots, it’s a scam.
In Japan, it’s not.
I had a lot of elderly people come up to me and start a small conversation. To be honest those are a few of my most cherished memories from my travels in Japan. Had it happen at mount Hotaka and even in some onsen. People are really curious about travellers sometimes and I love it. Never had one bad experience.
EDIT: I even had one person on Sado island gift a hand-written small letter with a poem to me. Unfortunately I can’t read it but this random act of the kindness of a stranger has a special place in my heart.
Me and a friend had a similar experience in Kyoto. Only after we told the old man where we were from (The Netherlands), he continued to grab a piece of paper out of his bag and started to read some words to us in our native language. He continued to ask if his pronunciation was right and asked us to correct him. After 3 minutes he thanked us and continued on his way. Elderly people also found it interesting that we had beards 🙂
Pretty normal – especially old people come and talk to foreigners rather often to practise their English or just to talk to someone. I think I never had a stay in Japan where that didn’t happen – sometimes they even approached me in Japanese and kept talking even though I told them mine is extremely limited.
>Are they just bored guys who want to chat with people?
Pretty much – yeah, they most likely are. Loneliness, especially among aged people, is a real problem in Japan, so the old chaps are just using every opportunity to talk to someone who isn’t “too busy”.
Also had an old man approach me near Osaka castle (remembered him as he’s been wearing a cap very similar to those that IJA soldiers had) giving me a very brief history lesson on the castle and asking if I also see the “birds wings” in irimoya-haku of the tenshu (hip-and-gabled roofs of the main keep i.e.), but that was few years ago.
There’s also been a very old lady in Okayama garden who thanked me for “coming to her country” and also briefly explained the history of a huge rock I’ve been taking pics of (it looked like it was sawn into pieces and reassembled, turned out it was just the case). Actually, that lady scared me a little since she approached from the back real quietly and went with the sudden “thank you for coming”, lol.
So, there’s no reason to be scared, they won’t do any harm or even ask to “spare some coin” (however, real homeless guys in Tokyo or in Kamagasaki might try that).
P.S. It’s not always just the old people, sometimes middle-aged Japanese try practising their English as well. Osaka castle park – a mom with a kid who looked like a middle-schooler approached asking if I could answer few questions for her son’s school project (son was writing things down to a notebook, so it kind of looked like a comedy interrogation). Kyoto, near railway museum – two typical “salarymen” approached me asking where I was from, did I like Japan and what my favourite food was, then shook my hand saying “thanks” and went somewhere else.
My dad is like this. He just wants to speak to someone in English and in general, is nosy, and wants to know your business. LOL But he won’t do anything with that information apart from relaying it to my mom and me.
Nope, pretty normal. Was going around the rail museum in Kyoto and we met and chatted to an older gentleman who was also visiting. We even took each others souvenir photos at the first train so we didn’t have to pay the staff to do it 😂
This I how I imagine the mankind to be : friendly, open hearted and interested in other humans. Pity that you have worries that it could be a scam or similar just because they are nice to you.
When we visited Japan this happend often I very touristsy places. Some seemed they just wanted to practice English and other just to learn about life outside Japan. In Kyoto we got stopped a million times by kids on school trips.
If I had a nickel for every time a middle-aged man called me cute, idd have two nickels. Not a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Sounds like Japan to me. I mean no disrespect in this statement. “Whea from?” was the ultimate ojiichan question while I lived there.
I was on site for a client for like 5 months a few years back in Tokyo and this happened on and off. The first couple times, it caught me kind off guard, but, after that, it seemed pretty harmless.
None of them made a pass at me, ask me for contact info, or anything else. Whenever I said I politely said I was busy or had to go, they never seemed offended.
I think they just wanted to chat. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Some of the best conversations I’ve had in Japan have been with random elderly gentlemen. I’m shy as anything and was traveling alone, so I was initially nervous when this happened, but ultimately came to love these surprise conversations. They’re some of my favorite memories from my trips to Japan.
In Tokyo, I had a lovely conversation about the (100+ degree) weather with an old man at Asakusa-jinja. He made a comment about the heat near me while I was reading a sign, and he was pleasantly surprised when I responded in Japanese.
In Kyoto, an elderly gentlemen talked to me about my watercolor sketching halfway up Mount Inari.
In Miyajima, I rode one of the cable cars with an elderly couple and their son, and we had a great chat about the difficulties of language learning.
Perhaps funniest of all for me was the gentleman who asked to share my bench in Yamashita Park when I was in Yokohama. I was sick as a dog with a gnarly head cold and sniffling constantly. I had stopped to do some sketching and paste things into my travel journal. He only stayed long enough to smoke a cigarette, but we had a conversation in English about how he used to work as a businessman in the US, and how Tennessee English is *very* different from what he had learned in school.
I got the same thing, I was in Japan for about a month and on three different days older guys just randomly started a conversation (I’m a guy in my 30s).
They were really nice, I felt like they genuinely just wanted to have a conversation and were curious about travelers or potentially wanted to have a conversation in English.
I have been approached by elderly people a few times when I visit Japan. They have always been very pleasant and expressed the wish to be helpful. To date, no one has tried to scam me. I am no more immune to con games than anyone else, but my life-long anxiety disorders tend to make me withdraw quickly if I feel that any boundaries have been — or might be — crossed.
That said, it seems polite behavior dictates that I allow these people to help me in such situations in Japan. Years ago on Reddit I told the story of how an elderly man in Nara offered to explain one of the shrines to me, and so I asked him for clarification about what was written in Japanese on a sign. In response, he seemed disappointed and perhaps a bit embarrassed that I could read Japanese.
Being the socially inept creature I am, I had to contemplate this for a while before I had a reasonable hypothesis for what had happened. I believe the gentleman approached me with the expectation that he would be doing a good deed for an obviously clueless foreigner. When I failed to remain as clueless as he expected, I impolitely deprived him of the chance to feel good about his deed.
Or perhaps I am wrong about this. Still, it has always seemed to me that approaching foreigners is a very un-Japanese thing to do. If an elderly Japanese person does this, I have to imagine they are trying to fulfill some important personal need. Cooperating with this outgoing behavior is probably the polite, kind, and respectful way to respond.
I lived there. Older men asked me about Shogun, my vac scar, etc. I didn’t much care for the intrusiveness, but probably harmless.
I had this a few times when I visited japan. I had a very wholesome experience hungover on the train from Sapporo to Hakodate, where two elderly women *insisted* on sharing treats(of which there were many) with me and my friend. We didn’t talk much as one lady had one of those mic things you hold against the throat, not to mention the language barrier. But a lot of polite sounds and bows were exchanged.
We were also approached by a man who tried to recruit us to what I think is one of those weird cults. He was very nice about it, but it definitely felt sketchy.
Elderly people helped me a bunch times when I visited Japan. Most just want to help somebody in need.
OP you’re not in Kansas anymore (smh… bad joke).
Happens all the time, it’s like a past-time for some old men. They hang out in parks or touristy areas and talk to every foreigner they see.
I guess it’s just not common in your country, but you can rest yo mind, there’s probably no ill intention behind them. I live in Brazil and where im from its super common to people to just approach you with some kind of instrument and ask if they can play you a song or with canvas to paint you, happens all the time and it’s no big deal
I went to Osaka Castle in 2015 and there was an older man there who chatted with me and my bf. He spent time each day looking up news in different countries around the world so he could speak to tourists and practice his language skills as well as learn more about the world. He was really interesting to talk to! I wonder if the guys you’ve met are doing similar things in their own ways.
Was in a small town, had a guy stop his car and start a conversation with me. Then took me around town and showed me some amazing things. After, went back to his moms place and she cooked us dinner. People are just friendlier there than, well anyplace else I’ve ever been.
In my experience, usually these are lonely old dudes who want a chance to practice their English. Obviously keep your wits around you and don’t give them money or follow them to other locations, but in general they’re harmless.
when we (two big, bears, think biker dudes, one in his 30s, one in his 50s) were at osaka castle, a young cute girl, maybe 20-25 approached us and started to ask us questions. I believe it was for the tourism board/city, where we from, why are we there, what we did, plan to do, like to do, like to eat…
maybe osaka castle is just a very popular place to find tourists if you need to talk to them, whatever that reason might be
I’ve been approached by older folks who appeared to just want to chat, but ended up handing me a card trying get me to join the Jehova’s Witnesses. This has happened to me twice in different parts of Japan on different trips so far.
I went to Osaka Castle last month and the same thing happened to me. I was taking pictures and a guy asked me which country I was from, and when I said the US, he asked me to give him hints to guess my state. He must go there regularly.
I think some people visit the castle often just to chat with foreign people. Maybe they want to practice speaking other languages, maybe they are socially inept, who knows!
The main places to be worried about strangers coming up to you are in sketchy areas or places with many bars, host clubs, etc.
I’m very obviously not Japanese and I’ve had people chat me up because they wanted to practice their English pretty regularly every time I visited. No matter if it was somewhere super rural or in a more touristy area. From high schoolers to old grandmas. It was really interesting, everyone wanted to know where I’m from and what I do for work, etc. Everyone had their own stories to tell too and I got so many different kinds of food recommendations. It was really cool and I met some nice people that way.
My favorite conversation was with an elderly Japanese woman who chatted me up on a commuter train to Tokyo. I accidentally used the slow train that stops at every single station, so it took almost 2h but the whole time she and I were just talking, she was telling me about her growing up and life in Japan, her travels, culture, etc. I told her about life in Switzerland and the US, she mentioned that her husband used to teach in Switzerland and just in general we talked about everything. She had so many interesting stories to share. It’s one of my favorite memories of visiting Japan.