Just got harassed by 3 older women at the red light district in Shinsaibashi.

Tl:dr – I accidentally walked into the red light district and 3 separate middle-aged Japanese women tried to solicit a girl on me.

I’m staying with 2 other people in a Ryokan hotel in Shinsaibashi, Osaka. The hotel is nice and the general surrounding area is fine, but there’s a clear distinction between the normal neighborhood and the red light district.

I couldn’t get any sleep so I took a walk around a few blocks and unwittingly walked into the red light district. I was approached by a middle-aged japanese women who started to speak to me in Japanese. Since, I don’t speak Japanese (my friend does), I told her “wakarimasen”. She then told me about in English about “hot young sex” and proceeded to show me a very obviously photoshopped picture of a young Asian girl. Since it was creepy as all hell, I of course politely refused and excused myself.

About 20 minutes later, 2 separate women approached me with the same proposition. Of course, I left and bee-lined it back to the hotel.

It was honestly getting scary, especially because I think one of them was following me. Does anyone know about these kinds of things? Did I overreact, did I handle the situation well, should I have done something else?

https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/12t5pzv/just_got_harassed_by_3_older_women_at_the_red/

13 comments
  1. A bit of an overreach to call being offered hookers in a red light district “harassment” imho. Don’t know where you are from, or where you have been already, but seems pretty low-key to me in contrast to other countries. If you don’t like being approached, I suggest not wandering the red light district at night…

  2. Not harassment.

    Regardless, just out of caution, I would ignore any touts since you’ll likely be ripped off. These scams usually target foreigners who don’t realize that there’s a much safer place you can pay for this type of thing without getting ripped off in Osaka.

  3. You went to a red light district and were asked to buy “something”… This is not a sexual harassment though.
    You felt it was creepy and noticed you were accidentally in the district, right? If I were you, I’d leave the district and go back to the main shopping street.

  4. harassed??? no dude you got offered to buy something it was probably just a tout. Just refuse their services or ignore them . Esp in the red light district at night.

  5. You should call your mom and tell her about your harrowing experience lmfao

  6. Just wait until you encounter the scoundrels pushing small packets of tissues on you outside a train station.
    How very dare they!

  7. LOL, are you sure you where you walked was still Shinsaibashi? Sounds like you went maybe a few blocks further south than that.

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