Hello, I am posting on behalf of my friend who isn’t on Reddit. She is 21F, studying in one of the quieter, less populated cities in Japan.
She was in a nearby park in the evening, talking on the phone, when she saw a middle-aged Japanese guy watching her and lurking near the park. He was hanging around for over 45 mins when my friend decided to return home at 8:30 pm. I happened to call her at that time and while we were talking, the guy came up to her with a creepy smile.
Here’s how the conversation went, lets call the guy A and my friend B:
A: Genki?
B: Genki.
A: Asobanai?
B: Nani?
A: Asobanai??
B: Nani sore
A: Asobu??
B: Imi wakaranai
A: Imi wakaranai??
B: Imi wakaranai
And then my friend said to me, “Keep talking keep talking” and she fled away from there. From whatever Japanese my friend and I know, he was trying to “pick her up” or ask her to hang out (probably hook up?). That is what the vibe she got from that person, anyway.
Q1. Is the interpretation correct?
Q2. My friend is very creeped out and doesn’t know what to do, now or in the future in such cases. Should she ask the nearby police for help? She hasn’t done anything yet because she doesn’t get legally involved with the cops, because of her being a foreign student.
11 comments
You’ve been ~~Punk’d~~ Nanpa’d!
It means “want to have sex?”. Tell her to be careful since some of these people are involved in crimes.
Yes he was asking to hang out, and of course as a man he had certain intentions. The Japanese way is to just completely ignore and not even make eye contact. Big mistake to reply to anything he says as it’s practically an invitation for him to keep talking. If he continues to follow then of course you can make for a police box, but only at that point is he actually doing anything illegal, as it’s not illegal to try to pick up girls.
It’s a Japanese tradition called “nampa”
Yeah, that was “nanpashi,” a pick-up artist. “Asobanai?” means literally, “won’t you play?” Asobu is used generally when you want to chill and hang out friend friends. “kondo Shibuya ni asobi ni ikou” would mean something like “let’s go hang out in Shibuya next time.”
I’m a dude, so I don’t have any personal experience, but you see a decent amount of these guys around and the general strategy seems to be just ignore them. Some of them are really persistent though, I once saw a dude follow a girl from La Foret to the station in Harajuku. Making a phone call is also always a good idea whenever you’re in public and someone makes you uncomfortable.
Regarding the cops, as a foreigner I think minimizing contact with the police is your best bet. They aren’t on your side. I highly doubt they would do anything about nanpashi anyway.
Just asking isn’t illegal AFAIK but if following or being persistent or vulgar it can break provincial law on disturbing the public 迷惑防止条例 . so in that case ignore or refuse. And if that didn’t work report to police. As long as you’re carrying residence card, there’s no need to worry about going to the police.
He was coming on to her. He was asking her if she wanted to have some “fun” with him.
What are the police going to do. My husband punched my teeth out and all the police did was take a picture.
You think they are going to do anything about someone asking hey you want to fuck and not doing anything else when rejected?
Also tell your friend an “I dunno” is a prelude to giving a price.
I have experienced this before, a weird man followed me from the train station, I thought he’s just weird at first because he was trying to reach my pace, so I let him walk passed me, it was already 11 pm and I haven’t had my dinner yet so I stopped by at the 7/11, I saw him went out and was looking at me. I just shrugged it off, and creeped out when I saw him going in at 7/11, as I was walking my way out of the conbini. I tried to walk faster but I didn’t manage to cross the street because the traffic light turns red, he stood next to me and said something, I didn’t heard what he said as I was wearing my earphones and I’m just on my 3rd month in Japan as a student of Nihongo school. I moved on a different side and thankful that there’s a police in his scooter, the weird guy left me, I was very nervous and scared on my way back to my place.
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Not using Keigo also may have come off as a little flirty. In a situation like that it may be best to just use English and block with a “sorry I don’t know Japanese”.