Welp, no other way to explain this. Was ushered into an all you can drink bar off the beaten path while exploring near akihabara. Only had 4 drinks, from what I can remember, but somehow blacked out and lost all memory. Which is strange because I’m an avid drinker, 180 pound male, and (thought) i knew my limits well. Regardless, the next thing I woke up to was a cell with nothing in it but a blanket. No hangover somehow, but hit my head pretty good. Once the police found me awake they did their best to communicate what happened despite not speaking any English. The only thing I was able to grasp was that they found me passed out on a busy street and once I got to the station proceeded to urinate right outside the cell(I cleaned it up for them later). They brought me out and returned all my belongings which miraculously were all there, money included, minus 20,000 yen which I presume I payed to the bar in my drunken stupor… Anyways, what I’m worried about is before they released me they took the fingerprint from my left index about 7 times on a document with no English whatsoever, so i had no idea what it was. Was I charged for a crime and I don’t know about it? I was only in there for about 5 hours apparently. I was released after completing that (and sincerely apologizing 900 times). I cant seem to find any similar situations online. Very new to japan and have only been here 3 days. I’m very worried and extremely embarrassed by this, so any advice that could hopefully calm me down would be great!
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Wow, what a story.
> Was ushered into an all you can drink bar
By whom? If it was by a tout or a stranger, it sounds like you might have been drugged.
> Was I charged for a crime and I don’t know about it?
Not likely. I know a few foreign residents that have spent a night in the station after drinking too much and nothing has come of it.
bro your fucked, probably never going back to japan again !!!!
Check your credit card transactions (hoping you didn’t have any on you) because that’s where the real damage is done.
This is apparently a common tourist trap in Japan, they often swipe your credit card data too. The police are almost certainly aware of it happening too and you’re not likely to be charged for a crime. Abroad in Japan made a video about it on Youtube if you’d like to know more. Do check your credit cards.
Please update us on your credit card and bar tab outcome. Being a solo traveler I must know this, then again I never let a stranger escort me to a bar. Especially after the stories I hear of cleaning out your credit cards.
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Classic drug the tourist scam. As folks stated check your credit card history. They often will physically take victims to ATM’s to withdraw money.
This is a typical tourist scam. Let it serve as a huge warning to any of you traveling to Japan!! Do NOT let some rando take you into a bar. ðŸ˜
Get bloodwork done if you can and file a police report. Sounds like you were drugged. I’m glad it doesn’t seem like you were sexually assaulted. As a dude who’s been drugged I know how shitty and violating it feels even when you avoid the worst of it. Take care man. Forget the money I’m glad you’re okay.
Yeah, this is the typical “touted into a bar and be drugged and mugged” story.
Are you sure you can’t find similar stories online? Because it’s a fairly common occurrence, and people here and on the travel subreddit often warn people about not going with the touts to bars just because of this.
you got scammed, all you can drink bars that you are lead into are often a way to trick unknowing tourists. sorry that happened and nothing worst
Wow… To say that I feel stupid is an understatement. I was so concerned about the fact that I could be in trouble with the police that it never crossed my mind for even a moment that I could have been drugged. For reference, it was no more than 12:30, in broad daylight (day drinking on vacation was normal for me, was). And I honestly can’t even say that I physically saw a drink being poured in front of me while i was still conscious. I was naive, more focused on conversation and laughing than anything. Everyone was so nice. What little English they spoke seemed so genuine and happy. And then lights out. My credit cards are untouched somehow, but the 20k yen is still long gone, a small price to pay. I consider myself extremely lucky. As someone stated below there’s a possibility that I was able to escape while I still had some sense of self, but I really can’t say for sure. I’d do have some injuries, nothing major, that I originally thought was from me being a drunken fool. Thank you everyone. I will do my best to answer any questions when i can, I sincerely appreciate you all for the wake up call. This will not change my opinion of japan or Japanese people, I still love their kind hospitality and hard working culture. I won’t let my own ignorance, foolishness, and stupidity change that, i will simply learn from my mistakes. And yes, I made this account only to post this because I was embarrassed for being drunk and disorderly, but now that I know the truth I’m doubly thankful.
Usually there are Nigerians trying to get people to come inside the establishments
Sounds like you got drugged.
Check your bank accounts and take this as a lesson not to follow touts into strange offbeat bars
When I picked up my stolen bike I also had to fingerprint the documents because I did not have my hanko on me.
A hanko is a stamp you use like a signature. The parts of the document needed to be signed, and in lieu of the stamp, they took a fingerprint instead. Rather than you know, a signature.
I think it’s very likely they were standard release documents and you just signed them with your fingerprint.
Regarding what happened, well it sounds like you followed a street tout into a dodgy bar and were drugged, and charged a lot of money. Pretty common story. If you read the travel advice for Japan on the travel advice websites that USA, UK, Australia, Canada and NZ all publish, in the safety and security section it describes this exact scenario. You might want to check your credit card statement if you had the card on you.
It seems everybody has already told you about touts and how some of these establishments drug you and take your money. (That 20,000yen) run by Yakuza of course so police wouldn’t care anyway.
Just be more careful about where you go drinking I guess.
I think most people, at least residents, have drunk so much they’ve passed out at on the pavement, in a park, in the train station or in the toilet. Well those are just the places I’ve passed out. Nothing bad ever happened to me, but I wasn’t drugged so..
Sorry to hear that OP. people need to be careful with this stuff. yes Japan is “low-crime” but that doesn’t really apply to hectic nightlife districts, which are still full of people looking to rip off and exploit tourists. it does sound like you might have been taken advantage of, either piled with even more booze than you expected or even drugged.
There was a thread recently on JapanLife about a similar situation of someone “just going into a bar” (this time encouraged by two hot babes) and waking up with 400,000 yen drained from his bank account. so clearly these operations have been ramping up as the tourists return after Covid: https://old.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/135bncm/scammed_in_a_yokohama_girls_bar/
I actually think you were drugged. This is a scam that has happened to others in the past. Here’s a video where Abroad in Japan reads the experience of one of his viewers: https://youtu.be/NeZUOFKOUeI?t=7m28s
Summary: >! A newly wed couple on honeymoon followed a street tout (one of them pushers that try to get you into bars) into a karaoke bar and they were quickly fed a bunch of drinks and suddenly blacked out. When they woke up, their cards were charged 6000 USD in total, and the police not the bak couldn’t do anything about it. !<
So I doubt this was a drunken stupor, but rather the result of whatever drugs they slipped you. I highly recommend checking your bank debit and credit card(s) for any unauthorized transactions.
It is a scary situation, but the good news is that you are out of that situation now. The loss of money will sting, but you got out of it. You likely have a good amount of days left in your trip, so don’t let this ruin it! Go out and see/do what you’ve been looking forward to.
I’m packing my bags right now and will fly to Tokyo tomorrow. If you happen to still be in Tokyo on the 14th, we could get a coffee somewhere maybe!
You 100% had your drink spiked. I’m in a country where this is common against women (the UK) and it sounds exactly like it. I’m really sorry it happened to you, it’s a really distressing experience having your autonomy taken away from you. Go easy on yourself for the next few days (sometimes the drugs have a hangover period) and try not to blame yourself – ultimately they are the ones who committed a crime here not you.
PSA for anyone reading that is about to go drinking in Japan:
#DON’T FOLLOW THE TOUTS!
You’ve been drugged
Sounds like you were drugged. I’m sorry OP – that is horrible anywhere in the world. It seems like the friendly guy got OP into the bar and kept him distracted from watching the bartender make drinks. Check your debit/bank cards for sure, those can be more troublesome to fix than credit cards. I would say get your injuries checked out, there are a decent amount of English-speaking clinics.
You might also want to report this to your country’s consulate since you had to sign a document you didn’t understand. If you’re from the States then I will say speaking from personal experience (not in Japan though), that the American consulate does a pretty good job of having your back and getting things sorted out.
Does this happen only to solo travelers? I have never been approached by a tout in all my travels, but I am either wearing suit or with my gf.
I can remember people standing around and shouting stuff, but not people approaching me.
I’m a longtime resident and avid drinker and being drunk in public is not illegal. There was a guy passed out in the neighborhood flower bushes once after drinking lol. I honestly didn’t even know they had drunk tanks. The police probably were worried about you and took u in.
The only unusual part of your story is that they only took 20,000 yen. Usually it is more like five times that from hearing people’s stories. Either u had a medical emergency and dropped some money somewhere or (way more likely) they drugged u and were fleecing u and you said something to them in your blacked out state that made them stop.
Don’t worry and don’t follow touts anywhere. The police just have your prints but if you don’t get in any trouble with them there won’t be any more trouble! You didn’t do anything wrong.
That took some courage to post this. Thank you. And I am sorry to hear that this happened to you but it will be helpful to a lot of people who read this. I remember being approached by someone similar in Kyoto who was exceedingly friendly right from the get go and I have seen and heard the touts in Tokyo outside of bars in parts of Tokyo such as mentioned by the moderator. I would add to this that I have also encountered this in Roppongi. The best prevention is to just keep walking.
The object lesson from your post is to exercise caution and be skeptical. I am going back to Japan for my third trip this Fall and two friends of mine are meeting up with me for a short stay in Tokyo and thence on to Kyoto for a graduate course. It is their first time in Japan and I will be sure to pass on your story to help them avoid a similar fate.
When I travel I only drink at restaurants or hotel bar or my own hotel room, or with friends that I trust
In my experience, it’s really easy to get super drunk in Japan when you’re hanging out with new people. One night I did a drinking tour where we got hoppy at a restaurant, beer at an izakaya, and some flights of sake at a fancy lil sake bar high up in a building. Afterwards we all went to 7-11 and were introduced to Strong Zero and drank it outside with a little crowd. I felt pretty drunk by then. My group was pretty social, which made the drinking a lot easier. I took a train from Shibuya back to Asakusa and had to stop halfway to use the bathroom. Then I went to the Family Mart next to my hotel where I bought a big Kirin and another Strong Zero. I remember taking a sip of the SZ in my room and then I woke up at 6am with my head hurting. This was only the second time I ever blacked out, the other time being with Everclear jungle juice at a party in college. I was incredibly hung over until about 3pm. I planned to meet up w my tour guide in Shinjuku for some ramen at noon, but I only ate like 3 bites before he was finished and we left. Riding the train was hell, especially while trying to stop a 55-on checked bag from rolling around.
Not saying it couldn’t have been drugs, but I’ve fallen victim to delicious shochu that goes down like water when you’re in a good mood with strangers.
Similar happened to me, but it was definitely self-inflicted and didn’t involve a tout. In fact, I’ve had worse than that and I highly doubt youve got much to worry about except the bang on the head maybe.
I think that the thing you fingerprinted was perhaps a form declaring that your belongings were returned in full.
I would check your bank account. There’s a very well known scam where theyll drag you into bars, drug you and steal your money. There was one couple thar was ripped off for £6k on their honeymoon 😬😬