Comments on: Bangkok/Thailand vs. Tokyo/Japan

By: Jay

Jay — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 08:04:25 +0000

There both special in there own ways …

Depends i guess on what your looking for.

I would rather live in thailand just because of the cost of living and the street food;)

Japan is awesome super clean but very expensive.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 01 Sep 2017 04:43:06 +0000

In reply to Stuart.

Hey Stuart, great to hear! I loved, love, loved Japan, but the smoking got to me a bit…glad to hear it’s gotten better! It’s funny, when I was in high school, speaking English was such a huge advantage…now it’s like “Yeah, everyone can speak English, what else can you do?”

By: Stuart

Stuart — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 08:32:10 +0000

Hey Greg! I was Googling something related to Japan and found this post. I just returned from Tokyo yesterday and I am happy to say that my experiences were a little better than yours — at least as far as English and smoking goes. Almost everyone we talked to could speak enough English to do their job (that is, check us into our room or sell us food). And every restaurant and hotel we stayed in were non-smoking. There are smoking “boxes” (small rooms) everywhere, so it was very rare that we actually saw anyone smoking. Both cases were a very welcome surprise. And yes, the trains are on time and the sidewalks are walkable. Tokyo is a lovely city and I imagine it will continue to improve as we get closer to the 2020 Olympics.

By: Matt S

Matt S — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 22:45:59 +0000

I think comparing the “tourist scam” thing is ridiculous, but all tourist bloggers do it. I’ve read how people compare tourist scamming between Thailand and Germany! The point of ripping off tourists is because some countries have a much much poorer population than the tourists; they think that you’re rich and they sometimes try to charge more. It happens everywhere in the emerging tourist destination, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (which gets really bad report about it). I traveled in China 20 years ago and it was so bad because China back then was so poor. Come back and talk about tourist scamming when Thailand is as rich as Hong Kong or Japan.

Another thing is about “land of smile thing” — this was the epithet Thailand got when there were only a few million tourists annually. Now the annual tourist arrival is 25-30 millions. And these tourists are not polite, indulging in so much sex and parties to the point that it tarnishes the country’s image. The Thai people is famed for their tolerant of gays and homosexuals; and their Buddhist belief condones prostitution (for they think that being born poor is resulted from past karma and they do not judge people who take up the trade). But sex tourists and seedy foreigners take advantage from their liberal and forgiving character — and they keep posting about their negative image. It’s the foreigners who keep asking “why Thailand has so many ladyboys or hookers?”

No doubt Thais sometimes do not smile at tourists. If the same thing happened in Japan, the japanese would surely kick everybody out — chanting “kairo, kairo gaijin” everytime they see a tourist. Japan is a society dominated by a singer racial group. They won’t tolerate bad behaviors that tourist show towards their women.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 16 May 2017 20:54:31 +0000

In reply to Greg. LOL! There's always one booger in the pudding...

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 04:44:13 +0000

In reply to Jay. Er, it's called Taiwan. Prices infrastructure geography climate mid point between Japan and Thailand.

By: Greg

Greg — Fri, 30 Sep 2016 04:25:40 +0000

In reply to Shonto. Thank you, Shonto! A polite and well thought out comment that reveals much about your character. I'll be over here playing with swords if you'd like to give me advice on how to properly perform 切腹.

By: Shonto

Shonto — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 01:47:38 +0000

Garbage. Now that’s an English word that sums up much of your observations. Please give up writing and go back to playing with swords

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 22 May 2014 14:52:37 +0000

In reply to Brennan. Thanks Brennan, good points. And yeah...things in Thailand just keep getting more and more confusing. Hope that's a light at the end of the tunnel and not a train! :)

By: Brennan

Brennan — Wed, 21 May 2014 00:36:00 +0000

Hi Greg, very interesting post. I didn’t know you studied Japanese!
My Japanese friends have told me that they spend a lot of time studying English grammar from junior high school and up, but they rarely get a chance to practice speaking and so are very “shy” when faced with a foreigner who speaks English. The Japanese are very modest and hold themselves to very high standards. It’s probably the pressure to perform that causes them to freeze up and why their spoken English pales in comparison to their ranking in the English Proficiency index.
I see martial law has been enacted in Thailand. Take care of yourself!