“…they’ll think you’re Yakuza. Except for you.”
points to me
“At your size, they’ll think you’re three Yakuza.”
Normally I don’t like her very much, but that was really funny.
Leaving aside the joke, that’s something I really don’t understand. Assuming you don’t look Japanese, why would they assume that everyone in the world gets tattoos for the same reasons as (many? some? most?) Japanese tattooed people do? Are they really that parochial?
My Japanese sister-in-law is married to an American who was formerly in the navy. They live and he is employed in Japan, and has been for a long time. He can’t go to any public bath or onsen. He has an anchor on one arm, and something on his chest.
It just seems dopey to me. Sorry for the sidebar.
Roddy
Makes perfect sense to me. The baths don’t want yakuza in there but putting up a sign that says “No Yakuza Allowed” is not likely to go over well with the gangs (“Nice onsen you have there, shame if something were to…happen to it”) Also, how do you tell, aside from tattoos, who the yakuza are? They probably don’t have membership cards to check.
By banning tattoos, the bath owners can keep a lot of yakuza out. Any gang members without tattoos could go in, but they have to leave their inked brethren outside, so what’s the point.
Now, rules is rules. Your SIL’s husband may not be thought of as a yakuza by most Japanese who give it much real thought. On the other hand, how can the bath owner make an exception for him and not let the Japanese dude with the tats in?
On the other hand, maybe the Japanese just think that the yakuza are a very open, multi-racial bunch and that they really do recruit foreigners in significant numbers. Could be true.
“Yakuza”?
Japanese organized crime.
Members of the Japanese equivalent of the mafia.
Oh come on :), there are still sailors with an anchor tattoo on their biceps?
Does he eat a lot of spinach?
Seriously, Guinastasia you had never heard of the Yakusa?? Or did you mean something else by saying that?
There are onsen that yakusa can go to even if they have tattoos. Arima onsen, for example doesn’t ban tattooed customers.
“onsen”?
Question mark?
Anecdote: my oldest son has 3/4 sleeve tattoos, his back is covered and so is much of his chest. Most of it is Japanese in nature. He and his wife like to vacation in Japan when they can afford it. Last time he went, they stayed at a hotel in Kyoto with a pool. He went outside for a swim and the manager came running out almost immediately and told him he could not expose his tattoos, as he was scaring the Japanese guests, who assumed that he must be a criminal. It was quite a deflating experience for him, as he thought he was quite cool.
Bad title?
They’re most wonderful before and after a day of skiing.
The average foreigner with tattoos will not be considered a Yakuza member, but they are nevertheless frowned upon.
Sorry I didn’t answer - I genuinely thought it was a joke from upthread.
And yeah, what Auto said - nobody with a functioning brain would think a non-Japanese-looking person could be a Yakuza member.
I’m aware. The topic came up in class because she noticed a Korean student had a tattoo, so that might be a bigger problem for him.
She made the joke about me because I’m 6’5 and built roughly like Jason Segel.
Some people say you woulda been safe, anyway.
I’ve always assumed that these rules banned two undesirable groups:
-
Yakuza
-
Gaijin
Some Japanese people think that Americans/Europeans etc. are just there to start shit, ogle women, and so forth.