My partner and I (Australian) have been here for almost a week of our three week stint now, and I have to say for the most part, other (obvious) tourists from most countries have been pretty good in respect to wearing a mask in indoor settings, abiding by the general Japanese mindset of being considerate and respectful of others around them etc.
But for those of you I’ve noticed on my travels being maskless or with it tucked firmly under your chin, why? The Japanese (especially older generations) were so hesitant to get tourism back to Japan after the pandemic and you are shining examples of why the older Japanese generally don’t like western tourists!! Just wear the fucking mask and shut the fuck up! If you don’t want to wear it, then don’t come here until things ease up. The signs are literally everywhere at shops, trains, whatever.
The kicker was today my partner and I saw three Aussie tourists, young guys in Kyoto at a tourist destination and one of them was getting irritated because the facility staff were super hesitant to let him in without a mask. Like for fucks sakes mate, how hard can it be to wear it for the hour it took to walk through the castle?
Please, stop giving the Japanese reasons to dislike tourists and just abide by their requirements while you’re here. Masks are like 350 yen for a 4 pack.
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I’ll say, when I was in other parts of Japan on my trip these last two weeks (Tokyo, Nagasaki, Hakone, Takayama, etc), most foreigners I saw were wearing masks. But in Kyoto maybe only 1/3 of them were. I would get pissed every time I saw this. Guys, the hell, just wear the damn mask. These people are ruining it for the rest of us and making us look bad.
Yes I also noticed that in Kyoto lots of foreigners are not wearing masks. It is quite annoying seeing them like that. I haven’t seen this elsewhere.
I’m an Australian, and it’s always the fucking Australians when it comes to dickhead tourists in Japan. Precovid, bogans quickly started to realise how cheap and accessible Japan is to us and have started treating it like a more upscale version of Bali.
My mask is firmly adhered to my face so they can’t see how red with embarrassment I’m turning while I stammer out basic Japanese 🥲
But uh, actually, any recommendations for places to buy something nicer than the disposable packs of masks?
I made a post in a thread a few weeks ago about how I thought 70% of foreigners were wearing masks, but then I started to pay more attention to it. For every 10 foreigners I see, maybe 4 or 5 of them are wearing masks. It also gets pretty annoying when they’re blocking other people’s path or generally being oblivious of other people around them.
I just got back from my 2 week trip and I agree with everything you said. Every time I saw a foreigner not wearing a mask I kinda just shook my head. It literally is baffling. We’ve been waiting YEARS to come back to Japan how hard is it to just follow how the rest of the society is behaving and play along?
Mind you, I did see some Japanese not wearing masks and thats on them. Even a friend of mine (Japanese) didn’t wear one when we went out, but being the foreigner myself I still wore mine just out of respect for those around me.
Going to be in Japan in a month. I will NOT be wearing a mask. I WILL chimp out and make a scene as a mask less gaijin.
Wearing a mask is not required outdoors and I have seen plenty of Japanese people not wearing them
Wearing a mask is not required outdoors and I have seen plenty of Japanese people not wearing them. One rule for Japanese people but another for tourist.
Moderators should lock this as these types of threads almost always turn nasty
This post is so refreshing to see! We’ve been in Tokyo for three days now and the majority of maskless people we’ve encountered were foreigners. I don’t know if I’m imagining it but every single one of them have a holier-than-thou smug look on their face (like a bed bug). I’ll sometimes see just the wife wearing a mask but it’s always the husband that refuses to wear one. These are the same people that look at others as NPCs.
Aussies not respecting Japanese culture????? Who would of thought….
Welcome to America, friend. If you let us in, learn to adapt your rules. (And we aren’t the only ones, other countries are like this)
I don’t say this for myself. I’d respectfully wear a mask inside and even in crowded streets. However the demographic that largely travels to Japan from the US (largely, the wealthy and ostracized incels) largely deny COVID existed or ever was truly a problem even though it killed people (“So does the flu, snowflake!” is a common thing heard).
They don’t care if people are offended, they don’t care if people die, and they don’t care about the opinions of anybody, ESPECIALLY those who are not Americans.
That is where we are at over here. If you want it your government’s way (completely reasonable) and you want to follow protocols and some idealistic approach to lower numbers, simply keep Americans out.
What people aren’t saying is that a majority of Americans didn’t last 2 weeks in the pandemic actually following the protocols completely here before someone invented the idea that COVID wasn’t an issue and essentially abandoned those who would die from the bug if they caught it.
Fortunately the vaccines are working so well (for now) that this charade can continue here with less damage than we might face otherwise.
I’m all for masking indoors, especially when it’s crowded. Are Japanese still masking outdoors though? Seems kind of pointless. But I agree, when in Rome, better to not be rude.
When I was there last year (married to a Japanese person, so I could get a visa), we masked up, and so did most Japanese people – I noticed though, from the masks we bought in the convenience stores, that the masks are just for display. Those masks most people wear are so thin, with relatively “large” holes in them that they don’t have any effect at all on viruses. You can see through most of them because they are so thin.
We came to Japan wearing those European hardcore barely breathable FFP2 masks – that we were used to – but since everyone else was wearing the thin “just for show” mask, we switched to those as well.
I am going to Japan again in January, and of course I will wear those masks, but… It is sort of a silly show. I respect Japanese culture and do wear the mask, but it is an excellent illustration of one of the not so great parts of Japanese culture.