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tourist truck increase

The government is set to increase the number of helpful tourist trucks on the streets of Japan as part of their ongoing efforts to make sure overseas visitors have a trouble-free time here.

The trucks, easily identifiable by their dark colours and loud announcements extolling the virtues of the local area, can be seen (but mostly heard) in many cities across the country.

Tourists at a loss for something to do can approach the friendly and imposing tourist trucks and ask all manner of travel-related questions, such as: “Excuse me, could you tell me of a reasonably priced sushi restaurant in the area?” or “Do you happen to know where I might catch sight of a geisha?” The answer may be given in the form of an ear-splitting PA announcement in Japanese, or perhaps in the form of a softly-spoken, caring, considered, thoughtful response. The former is more likely.


A tourist truck crawling the streets of Osaka.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007 at 1:51 pm. You can skip to the end and leave a response.

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On Tuesday, 30 January, 2007, Blogger DDKK said:

How are tourists supposed to know that these vans are there for their convenience? Wouldn't it be helpful to have 'Tourist truck' written in Roman script across the side of the van? Or is that too obvious?  



On Tuesday, 30 January, 2007, Blogger Citizen_Stu said:

It looks like some kind of not so subtle secret government vehical  



On Tuesday, 30 January, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said:

I always wondered what happened to the van from the A-Team...  



On Tuesday, 30 January, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said:

I can confirm these are very helpful conveniences - the last time I flagged one down the young gentlemen who talked to me (oddly wearing jodpurs) was very accomodating.  



On Wednesday, 31 January, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said:

the tourist off season convenienty coincides with the upcoming elections, giving the go mobiles another useful job to perform.  



On Wednesday, 31 January, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said:

No, no, no. You guys have got it all wrong. This is actually the Yakuza Tourist Van that leads visiting Gaijin Gangsters to their demise. Just thought I'd warn u.  



On Wednesday, 31 January, 2007, Blogger Chris C said:

Ah, how I miss wandering down Okayama's main street only to be the only foriegner strolling past one of these friendly buses while they spouted their, er, foreigner friendly claptrap to an amassed crowd...  



On Friday, 02 February, 2007, Blogger the orientalist said:

heh heh heh.  



On Wednesday, 14 February, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said:

Looks like a japanese-nationalist-party truck used for propaganda and proselytism...  



On Saturday, 14 April, 2007, Blogger Dan said:

You naughty, naughty man.  



On Monday, 16 April, 2007, Blogger Miklos said:

I concur.

You are a bad man.

But I still laughed really hard.  



On Wednesday, 25 April, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said:

Sneaky, sneaky.  



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