

The Unlikely Airbnb Hosts of Japan - damian2000
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/magazine/meet-the-unlikely-airbnb-hosts-of-japan.html?_r=1

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ThePhysicist
To anyone going to Japan who is reluctant to use AirBnB but still does not
want to stay in an "ordinary" hotel, I can recommend going to a Ryokan:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryokan_%28inn%29](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryokan_%28inn%29)

Ryokans are Japenese guest houses and can be found in many cities around the
country. I once stayed in one close to the Hongo campus of the University and
had a fantastic experience. Sleeping in a traditional Japenese room and waking
up to a traditional Japanese breakfast before going to the bathhouse or having
a walk in the garden is just awesome, even more so because you can do this
while being in the center of a city with 11 million inhabitants :D

[http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1066442-d320548-Rev...](http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1066442-d320548-Reviews-
Homeikan-Bunkyo_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html)

~~~
dukerutledge
Hostels are also pretty great in Japan.

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Ronsenshi
Marvelous piece of writing.

I've been to Tokyo in past December and was renting an apartment in Shibuya
via Aribnb. While searching for a good place to stay I noticed that a lot were
listed either by foreigners living in Japan or by people who have close ties
with the west (work with western companies or travel a lot).

I've also met new friend from the US there (via reddit) and unlike me, he did
stay with the Japanese family in a guest room. But it seems like they too were
more open in the matter of sharing living space because they also had another
guest staying with them and she was from Australia (can't remember now, but I
think she's a relative of said family - so that too could be attributed to
closer ties with the "west").

~~~
damian2000
I had the same experience last year in July - we stayed in a 5 bedroom
apartment in Nakano, Tokyo which was run by a Phillipino lady who was a
Japanese citizen. She spoke good English along with Mandarin Chinese. She
caters for a niche market of large families - the 5 bedrooms can hold 10
people comfortably - each has a bed. It was a great neighbourhood - very close
to the Shin-Nakano station on the Marunouchi line.

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chairmankaga
"Like a lot of Airbnb listings, it was rented as “entire place” rather than
“private room,” which meant no host was in residence. But in this case, I’m
not sure any host was ever in residence. The listing was run by some sort of
conglomerate or management company, and checking in involved no human
interaction whatsoever. To get there, I carried my luggage up a neon-lit hill
— past something called Hotel Fifteen Love, past places called Pub Slow Jam,
Adult Shop Joyful and Baby Doll and a pet store that sold fluffed-up puppies
and kittens and still somehow managed to look seedy — to the concrete
apartment building where it was located. The door was unlocked. A key had been
left inside. I had no idea where I’d landed."

That's wild, is there really such a low expectation of crime over there?

~~~
patio11
Anecdote: I once left an iPad on top of a table at a McDonalds in the 3rd
busiest train station in Japan during rush hour. Realized my mistake and came
back 30 minutes later. Neither iPad nor table taken.

Sentiment among Japanese folks is that it isn't as good as the old days but
objectively speaking if a major US city reported Tokyo's victimization rates
they'd be laughed out of the room. "At least lie competently!"

~~~
toomuchtodo
Can you offer any insight based on your experiences in Japan as to why the
crime rate is so low?

~~~
cyorir
One can only speculate, but here are some possible factors :

1) Firearms are not widely available, and must be registered. Violent crime
usually involves knives rather than firearms.

2) Japan has little in the way of slums or ghettos. Low-income communities are
not as prone to problems with crime.

3) Low availability of drugs. With less reliance on drugs, drug trafficking
and associated crimes are less prevalent.

4) Homogenous society. There is little in the way of ethnic tension, with only
a few notable minorities.

5) Gang culture. Organized criminal groups like the yakuza are more business
oriented than violence oriented. They are more likely to go after the crimes
that provide more money, including white collar crimes and crimes like
extortion. They also prefer to lay low, avoiding violent activity which would
draw the attention of the police and politicians.

6) Police culture. The police only move forward with an investigation if there
is enough to go on, leading to a high conviction rate.

7) Low unemployment. Most people who want work have it. Otherwise there are
usually enough welfare programs to keep others content and out of trouble.

~~~
nosuchthing
Kamagasaki has been a place name since 1922. An accurate count of occupants
has never been produced, even in the national census, due to the large
population of day laborers who lack permanent addresses. It has the largest
day laborer concentration in the country. 30,000 people are estimated to live
in every 2,000 meter radius in this area, part of which has been in slum-like
conditions until as recently as 2012, containing run-down housing structures
and untidy streets.

The area surrounding Kamagasaki is upscale, clean and attracts tourists with
popular sightseeing spots including the Tsutenkaku, Shinsekai, and
Nipponbashi. However, in Kamagasaki, homeless people can often be seen
sleeping in the streets throughout the day.

Many Bōryokudan offices are located in Kamagasaki, and drug and weapons
trafficking is thought to occur daily. Illegal gambling stores are often in
business in broad daylight. A seemingly endless line of illegally parked cars
extends along the national highway just across from the Nishinari police
station. The police do not bother issuing tickets knowing that the fines will
never be paid.

The city government of Osaka does not allow the name "Kamagasaki" to appear on
official maps and discourages the use of the name in the media. A film set in
the neighborhood by director Shingo Ota which was partially financed by the
city, called "Fragile", was pulled from the 2013-2014 Osaka Asian Film
Festival after Ota refused to cut scenes from the film that identified the
location of the community and referenced certain aspects of its culture.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamagasaki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamagasaki)

~~~
magic_beans
Um... what is the comment referring to?

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CocaKoala
He's pointing out that official statistics on crime in Japan may not
accurately reflect reality.

~~~
rmc
And how it sounds like Japan does have slums

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Loic
If you are into meeting people while travelling, I highly recommend you
Servas[0]. It is a more than 70 year old peace association with chapters in
every country. You can be traveller or host. I travelled all over the world
with Servas, from Norway to Japan and we are now a "host family". Happily
getting visitors from everywhere.

[0]: [http://servas.org/](http://servas.org/)

~~~
wingerlang
So it is like couchsurfing?

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ameister14
This article was fascinating to me. They found unified characteristics amongst
power users, but because of how Japan works, it may be far more difficult to
find potential hosts like the ones they have using anything other than word of
mouth or traditional advertising.

What a cool problem to solve.

Does anyone know if retirees are major Airbnb hosts elsewhere in the world,
particularly retired widows?

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pdknsk
Tip for NYT tech: try the page on rotated monitors. The notes and the picture
don't match — people are cut off left and right.

~~~
magic_beans
The page even starts to break when you reduce the browser window size. Very
annoying. Otherwise, NYT is wonderful.

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wodenokoto
When browsing couchsurfing and AirBnB it seems to me it's mostly foreigners or
companies renting/lending.

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blueskin_
De-paywalled: [https://archive.today/UFtBa](https://archive.today/UFtBa)

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emodendroket
I can't decide if this would have been better or worse if they'd chosen
someone to write it who knew more about Japan, but it was interesting.
Japanese people have done homestays for some time, though, which is arguably a
similar phenomenon, except you're stuck with a foreigner for way longer. That
might be something to think about.

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dukerutledge
I stayed at an amazing airbnb in Nara. I would recommend airbnb for smaller
cities in Japan.

