In my next life I want to be a Japanese tourist!

Posted by holly on Aug 9, 2010 in Asia, Blog, Tips

No kidding. Japanese tourists really have it down. I’m jealous.

Think about it: they’re everywhere. You could be in the middle of arctic Canada watching the Northern Lights or wandering the Beriloche region of Argentina, and, inevitably you will encounter a Japanese tour group. Usually led by a man in a suit carrying a little flag or an umbrella with cat ears on it, something so that he doesn’t get lost in the crowd. I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing, that the Japanese are culturally obligated to explore this world, or if it’s down to sheer population (there’s only so much room in Japan, so 30% of them must be on vacation at any given time? Yes, I’m kidding. Sort of), but they just seem to appear in more places all the time than any other culture.

It could also be that they’re easier to notice, too, as they tend to travel in large groups. This is a great idea. There’s nothing more fun then hanging out with a whole bunch of your friends in a cool corner of the planet, the memories you’ll share can last a lifetime. The only downside to large groups is that the logistics of arranging them are a royal pain, as, in my experience, as soon as you find a date that works for 80% of the group the other 20% will not be able to go/find it too hot at that time of the year/be called for jury duty, and then the group that was alright with the date in the first place won’t want to go without them, so you scrap the plans and start again. After three or four attempts at this, most groups just say screw it, divide into smaller two to six people groups and each get the vacation they want. The Japanese just seem to manage the group dynamic so much better. If there’s a secret, please share it with me, because I’m dying to know.

There’s another reason why I tend to notice Japanese tour groups, too: their fashion sense. It’s insane. In the best possible way. They just don’t play by the same fashion rules that us boring westerners do, and it rocks. I was walking downtown Vancouver the other day and was passed by a tour group entirely made up of Japanese students in their late teens/early twenties, and I had to stop and marvel. It was hot and sunny, and there was a girl in a floor length lace dress (housecoat?) with cowboy boots and a giant flowered hat, while her friend was in rainbow striped leggings and a floral blouse, and the guy behind them was wearing gangster baggy jeans, high-tops and a frilly tuxedo shirt. If I tried to wear any of that crap someone would ask me if I got dressed by grabbing random things from the bargain bin at Value Village and then probably ask me if I needed a lift to the halfway house, but on these uninhibited kids the looks worked. I’m gobsmacked. And totally envious. Because they looked so purely, truly happy.

And then there’s the photo thing. At any given moment there will be 400 Japanese tour groups around the world posing for photos. Every ten minutes they must stop and take a giggling, squealing “look where we are now!” photo. While flashing the “peace sign”. Anything can be the subject of the photo, as pretty much everything this world has to offer is cool enough to be commemorated in your digital camera. I work in a mall that, for all intents and purposes, looks exactly like every other mall on earth, and six months ago we had a tour group walk through the mall and they posed for group photos in front of our boring travel agency office window, the mall directory, the water fountain… and they had the same enthusiasm for that as they would if they were in front of Buckingham Palace or the Arc de Triumph. Photo finishing companies in Tokyo must be rolling in the cash! Now that’s how to make a buck, let me tell you.

I’m inspired. I want to travel the world while having a joyous, “I don’t care what anyone thinks” attitude and taking ten million photos. So if you’ll excuse me, I need to charge my digital camera, round up some friends, don my duck hat and see the world.

Peace sign.

Tags: camera, fashion, funky, groups, Japanese, tourist, tours

Spain reloaded 5:the finale – Hasta Manana

Posted by holly on Jun 25, 2009 in Blog, BlogSherpa, Europe

A full day of doing nothing but being a tourist! Happy dance, happy dance. Yawn, stretch, this is the life. Of course, on this trip the full day of boing a tourist involved a 6-hour guided tour of the nearby cities of Reus and Terragona, but without a hotel inspection, it was fantastic. I am such a city person. Give me a town with a really cool attraction (monument/temple/hundred foot gold ball of yarn/whatever) that also has a supermarket, at least one McDonald’s, mass transit, a Topshop, public washrooms and a stock of wine gums, and I’m in my element. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot to be said for getting away from it all, but with my attention span (see Spain Reloaded 3), it doesn’t take me long before I want to get back to it all again. Both stops today fit my criteria nicely.

Reus was up first, only ten minutes’ drive from Salou. This is the birthplace of Gaudi, and, more importantly, it’s just an adorable city. Our guide took us along part of the Ruta del Modernisme, a walking tour marked out on most tourist maps that outlines all the funky architecture and history in one convenient package. We saw the Placa de Prim (home to the “statue of the guy on the horse” and the “statue of the guy just standing there because he wasn’t special enough to get a horse”), Gaudi’s birth house (home to the statue of a young Gaudi playing with his balls. No, seriously, the boy is sculpted playing some sort of game with six balls on a wooden bench), the main cathedral and the central Placa Mercadal. Here we broke for a two-hour shopping break. I ended up in the town hall (free public washrooms), and when a couple of us paused to get our pictures taken in front of this pretty marble staircase, the guard gestured that we could go upstairs, regardless of the velvet rope pointedly marking it off. Next thing I knew we were alone amongst all the paintings of the past great Reus leaders, and even in the city council chambers. Stepping out onto the balcony off the council chambers, I found myself staring down at the square, where my peons were all hustling about doing their daily errands. It took everything I had not to break into ”Don’t cry for me Argentina”!

Then onto lunch (there’s that food fixation again, but this time it’s totally deserved). We had asked our guide if she could recommend a good local place to eat, and she suggested “Grandma’s Place”. All I knew was that it was in a church, but you cannot imagine my surprise when we drive out to the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nothing but hazlenut groves, and pull up to the most picturesque stone church, complete with a brightly-coloured wildflower garden and geese wandering around. That postcard in your head? Think even cuter and you’d get this place. A giant table was set up for all of us in some sort of cellar, and we were then served the most incredible three-course lunch (OMG… so much food… but so insanely good… try the stuffed peppers), all for only EUR$11! All I kept thinking is that this would be the perfect place to send someone for a destination wedding (assuming I could ever find it again), as you could get married in the adjacent chapel, then have a reception here in the cellar with the best food ever. And after lunch we toured the chapel (from it’s quaint exterior you’d never expect the modernist, crayola coloured 60’s murals inside), where our guide showed us the perfect accoustics by singing Ave Maria. Goosebumps.

Stuffed beyond all function, it was onward to Terragona, home of “the most Roman ruins within it’s municipality outside of Rome”. And that’s not just a tag line. At first it seems like a very modern city, until you turn the corner and find yourself staring at the giant stone anfiteatro balanced on a cliff over the Med. All we needed were gladiators on chariots, and it would have been perfect. There were a lot of ancient stone walls scattered haphazardly throughout the city center, and every time you turned a corner you had to be careful not to trip over another archaeological treasure. City hall doesn’t have public washrooms, though, according to the guard who escorted me out. There’s also a spectacular cathedral, this one reminding me a lot of Notre Dame in Paris, with it’s tiered entryway, each tier supported by a sculpted saint. Very cool.

That night I used what was left of my energy to repack, as the next morning we flew home. The trip had gone so fast, but, as I wasn’t with my loved ones and had visions of minibars and in-room safes floating through my head from all the hotel inspections, I was kind of ready to go home. I loved Spain, though, and emailed home on that last day in Barcelona that “we totally have to come back here! It’s awesome, you’ll love it!”

So my souvenirs, tan and I are now back in Vancouver. Well, not all of the souvenirs, as the smoked meat I bought for the Boyfriend was confiscated by security. He’ll deal, but it will take time and therapy This Spanish Flygirl is already making plans, now that I’ve caught the Spain bug, there is so much more that I want to see.