Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNative
No drugs and the related crime is a huge difference to most western countries. It's hard to describe really just how good it is to live in a place that has virtually no crime. We have never locked the front door to our house since we've owned it, even if going away for a few days. We never lock our car, often we leave it running if heading into a shop for a short time. We can walk anywhere at anytime with no fear whatsoever of being mugged or getting into some violent encounter. Now this is in rural Hokkaido and I'm not sure if it's the same in the bigger cities but to live where there is virtually no crime at all is incredibly liberating. You can't really understand how good it is until you've lived it.
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Conversely, people tend to be more safe-aware in some ways, and not in others. Having lived in Oxford and then the 'burbs in Osaka, I noticed that the girls in Hirakata were hardly ever walking/cycling around at night (say between 10pm and 2am) by themselves or even in pairs in the way that the Oxford girls routinely do. Conversely I saw more than one Japanese girl in a nightclub blithely leave her drink on the side and go and dance, which the Oxford girls would NEVER do. I mean, you know drugs are a rarity in Japan because a lot of people just know very little about drink spiking. There's a single hit for it on ALC and it's a mere definition.
That's what I like about Japan. I'm sick of worrying about drinks spiking and taking friends to hospital.