Peeing on the streets - common?

[briareos]

I stayed in Shinjuku where I was aghast at the number of people peeing on the streets, some even in broad daylight at 8 am. Is this common? The area I was in was kabukicho.

[nice gaijin]

Originally Posted by briareos

The area I was in was kabukicho.

....yeahhhh.............

[Uncle Frank]

While shocked at first seeing this in Fukuoka, I decided it's a wonderful old Japanese custom. How much easier it is for a person with a weak bladder like myself to be able to haul out the hose anytime almost anywhere and shoot. Saved hours of painful holding and searching for a bathroom to use. Just find a tree or pole to lean on/hide behind (a bit) and let her rip. I was a little disappointed that bowel movements were not handled the same way; but that would have ment having to lug toilet paper everwhere. Feel free to vomit while peeing after a hard night of drinking; kill 2 birds with 1 stone as they say.

Uncle Frank

[-Rudel-]

Ahhhh...you're just beginning to see the night owls appear out of the clubs! lol Remember those small bars are open ALL night through the mid morning hours!

[ArmandV]

I've never seen anyone taking a pee out in the open on the streets anywhere in Japan. I was lucky to be so spared.

[SushiShin]

This is common, believe me THIS IS COMMON.
Every time when i go out in Tokyo or Yokohama, i see people peeing on the streets, but mostly they are drunk (O.o')

[Pepe]

This is pretty common wherever you go. Even in countries where it is illegal - in these the culprits just tend to bother looking for a secluded (read: not in view of the police) spot. Unfortunately this often tends to be in the doorway of a business. There's a reason why many shop owners hose down their store every morning, and it's not because they're clean-freaks.

[bakaKanadajin]

I really REALLY don't get why people post this stuff. Like.. I heard.. I saw.. someone told me.. that..

- the Japanese jump in front of trains every day
- the Japanese piss in the streets
- the Japanese do this and that
- the Japanese have legalized teenage prostitution
- the Japanese won't sneeze on Wednesdays
- the Japanese bow 4.6 times per day

It's a given that, like many things in this world, any one of these things *might* have been true at some point in time. It's a given that somehow, somewhere, these rumors may have started with either a factual event or an interpretation of a factual event. But to make the jump and say that 'the Japanese', like all of them, do this, or to have expected that none of them do that, that it's an impossibility, is just crazy. Like why WOULDN'T they piss in the streets??

People piss in the streets here in Toronto all the time. Walking around Shinjuku myself many times last year, I can tell you that I smelled stale piss in the street corners WAY less than I do here or in other Western cities. I also saw way less garbage cans too. AND, less garbage.. hmm maybe the Japanese are ingesting their garbage as a means of keeping the streets clean?

These discussions move beyond the relam of common sense, and I think its because some Westerns assume that the orderly, efficient, homogenous, conformist Japanese can't POSSIBLY be doing things such as this, these are clearly foul, uncooth Western things.

Tell ya what, the Japanese do everything we do over here, EVERYTHING, because they're people too, and although they're not 'western', their way of life is every much as modern as ours if not moreso, so therefore they face the same problems and situations. The only real difference is they either find a way to do it more efficiently, or they do it with more personal discreetness. This means that when we finally hear about it, its a surprise because it's something we're just hearing about (yet it's been going on for ages) or they've taken it to the next level with their efficiencies and improvements.

There are two reactions I commonly hear from Westerners who've had limited exposure to Japanese culture.

'Oh those craaaazy Japanese' =)

or

'Oh.. those CRAZY Japanese' =O

[Mike Cash]

While it is a common practice, I feel I should point out that it is indeed illegal in Japan and the cops may haul you in if they catch you at it.

[AichiAlex]

I've seen it a few times, I've also seen someone get arrested for peeing on the streets, so while it may be common it is not legal.

[made of stone]

I rarely saw that in five years living around Osaka and Kobe (except from the odd extremely-drunken foreigner!!)

One year in Kanto, though, seemed very different, and I inadvertently witnessed many a 'plant watering' ceremony. Yes, on my odd trips (sometimes VERY odd!) into Shinjuku , but mostly out of my apartment window. My place there (beautiful, well-placed apartment, cheap rent...wonder why?!) was right opposite the 'prime patch' of the whole town - on the way home from both the station AND the izakaya/bar area...

It was a struggle managing to spend romantic late nights at home with my then-girlfriend, let me tell you! Took an awful lot of effort, and I think I did rather well, but then again I'm still single so perhaps not that well...?

Still I'd say from my limited travels in Japan that central London (not any other places I've been to in the UK) is x100 Shinjuku (and x1 rural Kanto lol)

'Tis all relative

made of spent (pennies)

[bakaKanadajin]

It's illegal in pretty much any industrialized nation, so is spitting and littering, j-walking, lots of minor infractions. All depends on how badly the cops feel like busting you that day. 'When in Rome' doesn't directly apply to every situation.

[Goldiegirl]

Is J-walking legal in Japan? I saw a lot of people doing it. It's a ticket here if you get caught. My niece got caught but the police just scared her and took her name down and said it would be on her "permanent record"! She still thinks it's there, for someone to look up and find out that she crossed a street in the middle of the block and not at the crosswalk!

[made of stone]

Urinating 'al fresco' (outside) is not illegal here in the UK. It depends where you do it and (perhaps more importantly) who might see you do it. If it's in front of members of the public then it would either be a public order or indecency offence , and if it was against private property then they could caution or even arrest you under a number of different laws, though you'll be unlucky here to get more than a telling off (though I'm not saying that's necessarily right).

At the most basic level, spitting is no more illegal in the UK than sneezing. And 'crossing the road when the pedestrian crossing light is red' (as we like to call it!) isn't technically illegal either - the police wouldn't ever verbally warn you for that (unless you almost got hit by a car, in which case it'd be more like 'you idiot, you almost got hit by a car 'cause you didn't watch the traffic lights!!')

Btw, what does the J in 'J-walking' mean??

mos

[Goldiegirl]

J or Jay walking is slang for crossing the street in an illegal fashion, like not at an intersection or crosswalk etc. Jay was slang for a slow person, or a person who isn't used to city ways, like a "country bumpkin"!

[Mikawa Ossan]

Peeing in public...

I have only seen it done with my friends when there is no proper place to go, and it's an "emergency".

Jay Walking...

I don't actually know about the legality of it here, but I would assume that there's a law about it some place. My guess is that it's just simply not worth the police's time to write out a ticket for it. Also, assuming that your neice is a minor, I doubt they would want to, anyway.

Also, I was always under the impression that the "J" in jay walking was a word and not a letter. I always assumed that it was related to the expression "Jay bird".

[made of stone]

Originally Posted by Goldiegirl

J or Jay walking is slang for crossing the street in an illegal fashion, like not at an intersection or crosswalk etc. Jay was slang for a slow person, or a person who isn't used to city ways, like a "country bumpkin"!

Many thanks Gg chan, long wondered that...

made of (finally, makes complete!!) sense

<edit> thanks for your valued input too, MO san! Mysteriouser and mysteriouser, though - what might a 'jay bird' be...? Good to see you around fella, btw *big wave*

[tigermilk]

I'd rather see that than what I saw on one of my many trips to Japan. Fortunately I've only seen it once, and it was in the Ikebukuro area. Just got off the Narita Express and was walking to the hotel when one fine local dropped his drawers in a under street walking tunnel. Took a dump right there. That pleasant pile of steaming waste was there for days.

I must say that I've had many a pee on the side of the road there while bike riding. But my western modesty has me find the nearest secluded area for that.

[ullvarg]

Its way more common to pee in the streets in Sweden and Denmark, than here in japan, I think ive seen it only a couple of times and done it my self ones here in japan after being pointed to a good spot to do it by a cop here in Sendai, during the big tanabata festival

[Pepe]

Originally Posted by made of stone

Urinating 'al fresco' (outside) is not illegal here in the UK. It depends where you do it and (perhaps more importantly) who might see you do it. If it's in front of members of the public then it would either be a public order or indecency offence , and if it was against private property then they could caution or even arrest you under a number of different laws, though you'll be unlucky here to get more than a telling off

Actually, you'd get arrested for public indecency (because your fishing tackle is exposed). Saw it happen two or three times whilst out drinking in Plymouth.

On a related note, if you want to see some of the most beautiful spots England has to offer, avoid Plymouth. If you like seeing drunk students pissing on themselves as they throw up cheap kebabs on each other, Plymouth is THE destination for you!

[Fel1city]

Have to laugh: had read this before work today, then driving home on the freeway (traffic very heavy) guy in car in front got caught short, pulled into the emergency lane, and watered for thousands to see!!! Then hopped back in his car and rejoined the traffic!!! Hysterical, in view of this thread. I laughed all the way home.

[briareos]

well, just for a laugh, i did manage to get a few photos of the perpetrators in action, caught in midstream.

[ArmandV]

The last person I say taking a piss in public was a girl on a sidestreet in Hollywood. Caught her bare butt in my headlights one night. Nice butt, too, I must add.

[Chi65]

Haha, that reminds on a walk in a german heath lately. It was a relatively frequented path, thus there was a certain car. But it looked rather locked, and thus I asked some passer bys.
All they did was laughing and suggesting to do it the "natural way" and that it is good for the plants. Not that I did not know it, but there was a relatively light forest around. . .

Anyhow, I finally found my place in the last moment, hoping for no one to turn around.

But men here also pee in the street, yet, if they sense someone coming, they hurry up or try to hide it. I have not yet seen anyone being arrested, but could imagine, if he was too extrovert with it. Towns stink much longer than woods indeed.

In times of long dresses, it was no problems for women either to do it beside rural streets. I was told, that this was pretty common.

I adore (and have fun too) in some japanese public l. . . though, with fresh flowers or water and bird's songs etc., particularly, when a few cabinets are together, playing quite a mixed concert, because of some automatic start by entering each one. Stops you from remembering your original reason, because it tickles more your laughter muscels

[Chris K]

Originally Posted by made of stone

Urinating 'al fresco' (outside) is not illegal here in the UK. It depends where you do it and (perhaps more importantly) who might see you do it. If it's in front of members of the public then it would either be a public order or indecency offence , and if it was against private property then they could caution or even arrest you under a number of different laws, though you'll be unlucky here to get more than a telling off (though I'm not saying that's necessarily right).
At the most basic level, spitting is no more illegal in the UK than sneezing. And 'crossing the road when the pedestrian crossing light is red' (as we like to call it!) isn't technically illegal either - the police wouldn't ever verbally warn you for that (unless you almost got hit by a car, in which case it'd be more like 'you idiot, you almost got hit by a car 'cause you didn't watch the traffic lights!!')
Btw, what does the J in 'J-walking' mean??
mos

we've even got alfresco 'urinals' on streetcorners in London now. Im not even sure if the're plumbed in, just a bit of shelter for a quick emptying of the bladder.
not sure if they rise up out of the ground like the picture but apart from that the're very similar.
Haha, imagine being in the middle of 'it' when morning offically arrives and this starts to sink into the ground