I wanted to make a video talking about safety in Japan

and how safe I feel here

Because I get asked lots of questions like if I feel safe walking alone at night

If I've had any issues being attacked by people

or harassed by people

So I thought that would be a cool topic to invite someone else to join me

So that you can hear both of our experiences

Because I'm sure we've had very different experiences

I wanna start out by saying that I feel a lot safer in Japan

than I do in Canada, in general

Walking down the street here

I don't feel worried that some guy's gonna come up and grab me

or try to attack me or anything

I never have that feeling when I'm walking alone on the streets here

How about you?

Exactly the same

I've never felt in danger here, ever

For me that's really different to how I feel in Canada

Canada, I'm sure has a really safe image to it

and I'm sure it's a lot safer than other countries, many other countries

But I've been grabbed by a guy before

in Canada, when I was talking down the street

So I'm kind of traumatized

When I'm in Canada I'm always very careful at night time

I always bring a friend with me if I'm planning to go somewhere late at night

I make sure that my friend gets a ride over to my house

and we're gonna walk together

But in Japan I never feel that I have to do that

Right, no, it's very similar for me

I've never been attacked

But I have stayed in an apartment in America

and one of our neighbour's houses was broken into in the middle of the night

while the female neighbour was still in there

and you could hear her screaming for help, and it was so terrifying!

I was so terrified

And I've had a lot of uncomfortable experiences with guys

Oh yeah, like yelling stuff at you as you walk down the street?

I have guys... they like to do this thing to me

where they walk past me and whisper in my ear

Oh gross!!!

Ugh I know exactly what you mean

"Hey baby~" or something

They think they're being clever

Has that ever worked on anyone?

I don't think there's any girl that would react positively to that

It's always "Hey Red!" or "Sup flame?"

Oh no... it's even worse for you with your hair D;

I feel for you... I can just imagine

That's one thing that I really like about Japan!

Is that people won't make comments at you as you're walking down the street

Well actually, that's not true

They'll make comments about you being a foreigner

They'll make general comments about you being...

Yeah yeah, like they'll talk about the shape of your head

Which is weird. Or like...

Or like... "Wow! Foreigners have such big noses!"

They might say something like that

But people won't be like "Hey sexy!" or "Oooo looking' good!"

like people in Canada would

It's not like everyone in North America is bad or something

I've had a lot of guys who would say stuff

but they would be nice about it and I didn't feel uncomfortable

They would approach you in a nice way?

Yeah yeah, there's definitely people that do that too

And here people just don't approach me, at all!

It's nice!

They're like terrified of me or something

The only unpleasant experiences that I've had in Japan

that I really want to share with you guys because

it's something that I was not expecting at all when it happened

and I was kind of traumatized

So I wanna let you know that it's something that happens quite commonly here

which is sad :/

People touching you on the train

Trains here are sooo crowded

In Tokyo they're packed! Literally like sardines

People will be like this on the train

There'll be someone here, someone here

And people usually have their hands down here

So it's really easy for a guy to touch your leg

They'll try and do it subtly

Just kinda like rub up against your leg

But you know what they're doing

The first time I came to Japan, I was 17

and I was wearing a skirt on the train

and this guy stuck his hand right up under my skirt

and like grabbed my butt

and I was just like "Holy shit what just happened!?"

I was not expecting it at all

So I just wanna warn you guys that that's something that does happen here

and it's not extremely rare or anything

It does happen quite commonly

So especially if you're wearing a skirt, something that guys can reach up in there

be a lot more careful

Kinda try to block yourself, maybe with your bag

If you see that you're right beside a guy on the train

maybe try to get your hands in between the 2 of you

or something, just to protect yourself

There are definitely methods to protect yourself on the train

Like standing with your back to your door

Yeah, try and get as close as you can up to the wall

Yeah, definitely

That's the only... I've had one other bad experience on a train

I tweeted about it, so maybe some of you followed me as it was happening

But this guy pretended to fall asleep on my shoulder

It was so obvious because he was awake

then all of a sudden he's on my shoulder

It was so weird because all the seats were open in the train

and he sat right down next to me, so I was like "Oh god...

this isn't going to end well"

So he "falls asleep" on my shoulder and I'm just like

Ugh and I move over and he kind of falls off

And then he tries it again

and then I look at him like "What are you doing?"

And he leans in to kiss me!!!

What the!?

Like he was so close to kissing me!

And I woulda punched him so I'm really glad that he didn't

because it could've ended horribly with the police and everything

Here, I'll reenact it with Rachel

You'll be me

Ok so he's on my shoulder right

and then I kinda nudge him off

Then he looks up and looks at me, and then he's like...

and he got like THIS close to my face!!

and I was like "WHOA whoa..."

"What the hell..."

In English I'm just like "Fuck off!"

"What are you doing!?" I was really surprised

He stood up, and went over to the door

and he got off at the next stop

I don't know if it was his stop or what

But thank god, he got off the train

and we didn't really cause a big scene

There were 2 other people a little further away from us on the train

And they just kinda started laughing

Which I thought was kind of mean, it wasn't funny to me

I was pretty pissed off

No, that's really creepy

But those 2 incidents are the only 2 issues that I've had

And the only 2 incidents where I've felt kind of uncomfortable

It's not that I feel unsafe

because I've never felt that someone's going to physically harm me

But yeah, sexual touching

You gotta be careful with that stuff in trains in Japan

Have you had any bad experiences on trains?

I haven't actually

But usually I go out with Jun

So I dunno if guys are more like... ya know, Jun's so tall and stuff

I'm sure if they see that you're with someone else

Especially if you're with someone that looks like your boyfriend

they're probably not going to try anything

Because you would tell them right?

You'd be like "That guy just touched me!!"

So yeah it's definitely safer to be with someone

I have been approached a couple of times before

It's called "nanpa" - like getting hit on by guys

But it's not... like I've had it happen in America too

Like uncomfortably and some guys are just, you know, they're just kinda nice

and here I wouldn't say it's uncomfortable

It's a little... sometimes it can be weird

Because they'll come up to you and be like "Hey, where are you from?"

"What's your name?"

And then they'll go right into "Wanna go on a date?"

or "Wanna come back to my house?"

And it's like "Ew. Who are you? I do not know you"

It's not gonna happen.

I had one guy not too long ago, he came up to me

and was like "Hey, are you from France?"

and I was like "No" and he was like "I'm sorry"

Why are you sorry I'm not from France???

He's like "I like your style"

and I was like "Ok, thanks"

I was like "I'm married"

As soon as he walked away he said I'm sorry again or something

or like "I like your style"

At least he apologized, that was nice

I've had people get angry at me when I said no

They'd be like "What's your problem?" in Japanese

Usually when guys nanpa you here they're drunk

Ah, yeah

You're in the city late at night and someone's stumbling home from a bar

A lot of times they're with a group of friends

and a guy will come up and be like "Hey my friend speaks English!"

or whatever, and they're all giggling in the background

"He speaks English~" and like "You wanna go get a drink?"

And I'm like "No."

I never feel unsafe though, right?

I don't feel unsafe

As awkward and obnoxious it is to be picked up by people you're not interested in

I never feel like "Omg, this guy might attack me!" or something

In Canada I often feel like I kinda gotta be careful

Yeah, I mean, there are bad people everywhere

And there are good people everywhere, so it's not like you know...

It's not like, this country is amazing and this country sucks or anything

But in general I feel a lot safer here and I like that

because I like going for walks at night, and I like going jogging at night

and it's nice to not have to worry too much

In general I would say Japan is a safe country

to walk around at night time, you don't need to worry about getting mugged

That rarely, I don't think it ever happens here

I've never heard a story where someone attacked someone to try to steal their money

I do see a lot of signs for "hittakuri" in our city, like purse snatching

I've never seen that happen

But they have actual signs up here in some places

"Beware of hittakuri"

People wil ride along on a bicycle or a motorbike and grab your bag

So be careful of people stealing stuff

But that's not a common problem

Yeah I've never heard of that happening, so that surprised me when I saw those signs

So if you guy have any other questions related to this topic

Leave them down below

and me and Rachel will try to reply to some of those if we can!

Hope that was helpful for you guys

Make sure to subscribe to Rachel's channel if you haven't already

And I will see you soon! Bye!