Hanging out with my tourist friend(s)

[firecracker]

I was wondering if I could start a thread to have your pictures posted regarding your experiences of hanging out with tourists in your environment that you captured on film. Whatever they are, as long as they are refreshing to you, please post. Perhaps it would be nice to see your pictures with brief outlines of your stories.

I enjoy spending my time with the tourists (and tourists alike) because they take me to the places I normally wouldn’t, and they show me what they see almost instantaneously. Following their instinct(s) and point of views is, sometimes a way to approach my own culture and/or my surroundings that I am too close to see by myself.

I'll start with mine. My story behind the picture that I post is that last month my friend from the U.S. came to visit Kyoto. We met up and did some tourist things together. She found a pair of "geta", traditional Japanese sandals that she liked, not women’s but men’s for herself, in a traditional geta shop. The shop owner was an artisan type, rigid and sometimes grumpy. He didn’t seem to appreciate her wearing men’s geta, so he gave her a full lecture on his crafts first. But after their constant battle/debate on those sandals, he eventually gave in and started to make adjustments on the pair she picked. He understood her sense of humor and didn’t take it as offence, and so did she on her part about his.

While I remained as a designated translator for them, there was only this moment I clicked the shutter of my camera, and I hope this picture tells as much of a story I’m telling now…

 

[medform-norm]

While I remained as a designated translator for them, there was only this moment I clicked the shutter of my camera, and I hope this picture tells as much of a story I’m telling now…

Sorry, but I think the picture needs your story to explain it. I wouldn't know what I'm looking at without your telling us what's going on. I'm foreign to this bit of Japanese culture (and many others, no doubt), so I would not recognize the difference between male or female footware. Also, I would not recognize the hairs in the right hand side as belonging to a female, seeing that men can have long hair as well.

That my 2c worth of spontaneous reaction to your post. I don't know if it is what you were looking for, but that's how I understood it.

PS I have to add that on my screen the image is pretty dark, so I cannot see very well if the person on the right has breasts or just a weirdly draped garment.

 

[firecracker]

Sorry, but I think the picture needs your story to explain it. I wouldn't know what I'm looking at without your telling us what's going on. I'm foreign to this bit of Japanese culture (and many others, no doubt), so I would not recognize the difference between male or female footware. Also, I would not recognize the hairs in the right hand side as belonging to a female, seeing that men can have long hair as well.

That my 2c worth of spontaneous reaction to your post. I don't know if it is what you were looking for, but that's how I understood it.

PS I have to add that on my screen the image is pretty dark, so I cannot see very well if the person on the right has breasts or just a weirdly draped garment.

Thanks for your comment. I didn't think one picture, or the one I posted, necessarily explains the content of the written text. At least that's not what I meant by showing. That's why the written text is only a brief outline/rough timeline, and it ends before entering the moment that I pulled out my camera and snapped the picture.

I might have to redo this, but the point I was trying to make is sort of learning from a little lesson that sometimes it's good to be in someone else's shoes when you want to see yourself and your own culture(s) from the outside, which helps to expand your horizon and make you see what's appreciative that you wouldn't otherwise.

 

[firecracker]

Here's another one that might help, but I wouldn't put so much emphasis on the story this time.

I took this picture (see the attachment) when I went to Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo a couple of months ago, again when I met up with a friend of mine who was visiting Japan temporarily. This fish market is a well-known place for tourists including foreigners who come to see its famous "tuna surgery" being performed very early in the morning. However, when we went there, it was closer to the lunch time, so there was hardly anything happening.

But as soon as we walked in what I saw laying around on the floor there was a few chopped fish heads next to a basket that was about to get dumped out. The workers were starting to clearn up the place, and we're sort of standing in their way. So, right there I snapped once, and we left.

To me, the idea of going to the Tsukiji fish market is so cliche like going to the Japanese traditional footware shop in Kyoto. But again, the experience I got was quite interesting, and that's in the picture as well in a way. I just put my little mark there on my story. It's part of self-justification of why, but hey, it's good.

 

[medform-norm]

But as soon as we walked in what I saw laying around on the floor there was a few chopped fish heads next to a basket that was about to get dumped out.

dumped out? those fish heads? In my student time I'd collect these for a superior fish soup... what a waste!

 

[roteague]

Thanks for the images firecracker, and the story that went with them. I always enjoy learning about other cultures. I have visited Korea in the past, and just passed through Japan, so these images do bring back a few memories. I may never return to these places, but photographs help keep the memories alive.

 

[firecracker]

On the way to Tsukiji fish market, there was a general-goods store selling some toys that caught my eye...

 

[firecracker]

Back in Kyoto, still early in the morning on one weekend, here is what I saw just outside of a video arcade. Someone told me that some teens who hang out there on the weekends usually stick around for long hours. So, there's a chance that they didn't go home the night before, but stayed in the area, and came back to play again.

The one in their school uniforms (in the picture it's hard to see) were probably on their school trip(s) if I wasn't mistaken. Kyoto is a mecca for a lot of schools (from elemetary to high school) for their school trips all round the year.