Where do you reckon they're from?

We’d be sitting at a café and we’d spot a couple walking past. She’d have dyed brown hair and be dressed in high-heeled sandals and short shorts and sporting a Louis Vuitton handbag (hanging from the middle of her arm). Or perhaps she would be wearing black knee socks with the sandals. He has long, layered hair, is wearing flip-flops and surfer gear, carrying a handbag and wearing a goofy straw hat. They take it in turns to get their photo taken next to a statue of a demon while giving the peace sign. Or often they’d be taking pictures of their nasi goring. Yep, Ubud is full of Japanese tourists. Even though we find them sort of cute and funny, you have to admire their approach to holiday activities. They are such unashamed tourists. They buy everything, take photos of everything and are not embarrassed to show that they are having a good time. We Europeans act too cool. It’s as if we see naked statues of demons on street corners everyday.

At a Fire Dance we went to, tourists were encouraged to come up after the show and take pictures of the dancers in their costumes (below). The Europeans came up, almost reluctantly, and took one or two discrete shots and thanked the dancers and then sat down. The Japanese were up there making the most of the photo op. Of course, they wanted to be in the pictures posing and doing the goofy peace sign. The actors must be used to them and all did the peace sign too! Last semester one of my students told me that her “dream come true” would be to get her picture taken next to Mickey Mouse at Tokyo Disney (yes, she’s 20 – don’t get me started). I wonder if I will ever understand Japan at all.