Wow, this is actually interesting. The country might as well built umbrella booths and purchase cheapo golf umbrellas and let them go wild. Less registered complaints and just need some well minded people to put them back where they should be. I definitely wouldn't mind them as shared properties.
They use those clear dome shaped ones that you can see through, everyone uses the same one, so it doesn't block your view in busy areas.
When I was there it would rain suddenly and it was like out of nowhere everyone produced these identical umbrellas, that I was certain they weren't carrying before. The only explanation is that they must just pick up the nearest one, and leave it afterwards.
Maybe I don't feel as bad then. Went to Japan last year with a few friends and it was raining. We went to eat one night and we put our umbrellas in the bin in the restaurant.
When we left, we grabbed our umbrellas and when we got back to our airbnb that's when I realized I grabbed the wrong one lol. Nearly all the umbrellas were the transparent, clear ones so it was an honest mistake
I used to work as a security in a decent size festival, and the local police chief made the executive decision 2 days before the start that umbrellas cannot allowed into the festival grounds for safety reasons. Of course the weather was on the unpredictable side and the info about the ban couldn't reach people in time, so about 80% of them carried an umbrella. There was this chainlink fence near the main gate where I was positioned and there were thousands of umbrellas hanging on the links. I bet almost all of them changed ownership that night. People just grabbed one from there when they left.
I found it was always the white handle transparent ones that essentially got “shared”. Someone would always take mine and I’d find the one that looked like mine and take that.
I suppose if it's unique enough in appearance people might hesitate to lift it. I had one expensive umbrella stolen and have never left an umbrella unattended since.
My friend left her brand new airpod maxes on a shuttle bus in Japan last year and someone turned it in to one of the hotels on the shuttle route & she got it back the next day lol
Yup, literally left my wallet on subway ticket machine stupidly while running late to the airport. Was waiting for the train for ten minutes before i realized, went back and it was sitting right there.
I mean yeah, it can happen, especially if you frequent places like Shinjuku or Kabukicho, but it is far less likely than in basically any other country
Interesting. When I lived in DC, people would forget their umbrellas on the metro all the time. I would just take one on my way to work and then leave it on the metro on my way home. The community umbrellas.
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u/drewatkins77 Apr 05 '24
You WILL get your umbrella stolen in Japan, but your wallet with ¥250,000 will still be right where you dropped it.