Today, I felt like talking about something else while I am in Thailand. Since things that happen to me in Thailand rarely happens to me in Japan and never in the U.S..
As I was walking by promising my good friend Deepak to get some DVD movies, a beautiful girl grabbed my arms began talking about my shoes. I was pretty puzzled, because why you a beautiful girl grab my arms and start talking about my shoes? Knowing that I am not beautiful myself. Maybe if I put some make up on, I might be.
Yes, I admit I was a bit frightened. I don't get a beautiful stranger just grab my arms and ask me weird questions. About my shoes? Nationality? My English? I guess she figured out that I am not Thai. She also didn't expect me to be Japanese either. When I told her I am from Japan, she then asked me if I wanted to go to her uncle's place and have lunch. Remember, this is a complete stranger. I had no idea what she was thinking. Why would a beautiful girl just grab my arms then later invites me to her uncle's house. She then introduce herself as Ann. I have a lot of weird and interesting stories coming from many girls named Ann. So I was laughing when she told me her name.
It didn't matter, because I really wanted to go to Burger King real bad. As most of you know, Burger King no longer exist in Japan, because they went out of business. To me this looked like an ambush:
1) a beautiful grabbed my arm and started a converstation
2) invited me to her uncle's house for lunch
She gave me her mobile number because she seemed pretty desperate to talk to me. After having my lunch at Burger King, I was curious why she was acting so desperate around me. Out of curiosity, I called her and asked why she wanted from me.
So here was her story, she actually got a singing job in Tokyo, but knew absolutely nothing about Japan. Here was her details. She is a 20 year old Filiipino girl who is currently living with her uncle in Bangkok. Her uncle is married to a Thai wife. Anyway, to make this whole story short, she showed me a contract which was written in Japanese which was a job offer for her and her friend to sing in Japan. She is a singer and her friend is a drummer. Something sounded familiar about this, months ago, I recently met a Harvard grad student at Deepak's restaurant and she was involved in a project which was against human trafficing in Japan. How Japanese Yakuza used their dirty tactics by telling young and beautiful SE Asian women to either sing, model or act in Japan. I remember reading her project website. It sounded really similar to the tactics I read from that website. So I asked the following:
1) found the job ad in a website
2) she and her friend e-mailed her picture to the job ad, because they asked for it. Which is a bit odd, because they never asked her to send a singing demo, but she was hired.
3) they asked for her body measurements. Why do they need body measurements for her singing ability?
It was more than enough to convince me that she is being fished into human trafficking to Japan. So I had to be the asshole to tell her that this job is most likely too good to be true. Chances are, she and her friend are being lured into human trafficking. She showed me a picture of her friend and she looked very very good. I hated to be the asshole giving her the bad news, but I told her if she is serious about this job do the following:
1) Never give her passport to her boss
2) Make sure she has a work visa before she lands on Japanese soil.
3) Have the contract in English, because when I read her Japanese contract, it was obvious that it was against her own safety if she sign it.
In other word, I had a pretty weird day. Now I am waiting for another friend named Ann to pick me up, I knew this Ann back when she used to work at the Thai restaurant in Ginza. Me with all the Anns.... Only in Thailand where weird things have happened to me.
As I was walking by promising my good friend Deepak to get some DVD movies, a beautiful girl grabbed my arms began talking about my shoes. I was pretty puzzled, because why you a beautiful girl grab my arms and start talking about my shoes? Knowing that I am not beautiful myself. Maybe if I put some make up on, I might be.
Yes, I admit I was a bit frightened. I don't get a beautiful stranger just grab my arms and ask me weird questions. About my shoes? Nationality? My English? I guess she figured out that I am not Thai. She also didn't expect me to be Japanese either. When I told her I am from Japan, she then asked me if I wanted to go to her uncle's place and have lunch. Remember, this is a complete stranger. I had no idea what she was thinking. Why would a beautiful girl just grab my arms then later invites me to her uncle's house. She then introduce herself as Ann. I have a lot of weird and interesting stories coming from many girls named Ann. So I was laughing when she told me her name.
It didn't matter, because I really wanted to go to Burger King real bad. As most of you know, Burger King no longer exist in Japan, because they went out of business. To me this looked like an ambush:
1) a beautiful grabbed my arm and started a converstation
2) invited me to her uncle's house for lunch
She gave me her mobile number because she seemed pretty desperate to talk to me. After having my lunch at Burger King, I was curious why she was acting so desperate around me. Out of curiosity, I called her and asked why she wanted from me.
So here was her story, she actually got a singing job in Tokyo, but knew absolutely nothing about Japan. Here was her details. She is a 20 year old Filiipino girl who is currently living with her uncle in Bangkok. Her uncle is married to a Thai wife. Anyway, to make this whole story short, she showed me a contract which was written in Japanese which was a job offer for her and her friend to sing in Japan. She is a singer and her friend is a drummer. Something sounded familiar about this, months ago, I recently met a Harvard grad student at Deepak's restaurant and she was involved in a project which was against human trafficing in Japan. How Japanese Yakuza used their dirty tactics by telling young and beautiful SE Asian women to either sing, model or act in Japan. I remember reading her project website. It sounded really similar to the tactics I read from that website. So I asked the following:
1) found the job ad in a website
2) she and her friend e-mailed her picture to the job ad, because they asked for it. Which is a bit odd, because they never asked her to send a singing demo, but she was hired.
3) they asked for her body measurements. Why do they need body measurements for her singing ability?
It was more than enough to convince me that she is being fished into human trafficking to Japan. So I had to be the asshole to tell her that this job is most likely too good to be true. Chances are, she and her friend are being lured into human trafficking. She showed me a picture of her friend and she looked very very good. I hated to be the asshole giving her the bad news, but I told her if she is serious about this job do the following:
1) Never give her passport to her boss
2) Make sure she has a work visa before she lands on Japanese soil.
3) Have the contract in English, because when I read her Japanese contract, it was obvious that it was against her own safety if she sign it.
In other word, I had a pretty weird day. Now I am waiting for another friend named Ann to pick me up, I knew this Ann back when she used to work at the Thai restaurant in Ginza. Me with all the Anns.... Only in Thailand where weird things have happened to me.
It got weirder when I met my friend from Japan out of the blue. He wanted me to show him around Bangkok.
posted by Fumi at 11:21 PM
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