TL;DR A tourist was filmed using the sacred torii gate at Ikeda City’s Atago Shrine as a pull-up bar, sparking outrage online. The incident highlights the growing issue of “meiwaku” (nuisance) tourism in Japan, where disrespectful behavior for social media attention threatens cultural heritage sites.
by SkyInJapan
30 comments
Not again. 😩 What is wrong with people? You would think that people who can afford to go overseas would have manners.
Attention whores.
As a sixteen-year immigrant in Japan, I have no problem with this being made illegal (if it isn’t already) and having these dumb fucks face jail time as a result.
Just don’t blame all foreigners for the stupidity of the few, okay, Japan? Most of us *gaijin* are good people.
I wish I could just dropkick that mofo and make him do a 450 onto the pavement.
Time to have “Tourist Police” like Thailand. Help tourists and also bust them when they’re out of line. These twats need to get penalized with fines and community service and capped off with a 5-10 year entry ban, depending on the infraction.
I wish Japan had a stronger economy and thus, a stronger currency, so it can attract the kind of tourists who are already familiar with Japanese culture and attractions
Now, it’s getting the garbage kind of tourists that countries like Thailand normally gets
I wish there was a social credit scoring system that can keep track of individuals, as a method to deter unruly behavior.
But on the other hand it’s a massive invasion of privacy and can be used for nefarious stuff.
Six months of jail, 10.000 dollars fine and life long ban of entering Japan ever again. This for all of these assholes, zero tolerance and no excuses.
Last time doing torii pull ups were two latin sisters or something like that? Quite famous if I recall correctly, they had to set to private their instagram?
For real I can’t understand the behavior of copying monkeys.
If Japan had better regulations for these kinds of tourists, then the far-right would not be rising in popularity among the people of Japan as much as they are now.
I saw a group of western tourists with bikes at Karasuma station buying tickets for the train. Not like properly packed into a bag per the regulations, but like hello there I’m going to ride this bike out of the train ready to ride bikes.
I assume they were stopped before boarding.
Every day stupid tourists give locals more and more reasons to absolutely hate their guts. This is just a single incident, there are thousands more like this daily.
Idk how feasible it would be, but maybe imposing a fee/tax payable on entry to the country.. the proceeds of which goes towards funding a public security type presence at cultural sites to help police against this sort of behaviour? The funds could also hopefully help maintenance of cultural sites or popular tourist areas..
it will be my third trip to Japan this year and I would honestly pay a fee every time if I knew the money was going towards something like that.
Imposing fines and/or jail time depending on the severity of bad behaviour as well.
I don’t know why ppl think behavior like that is acceptable. Do they leave their brain at home while traveling?
Lemme guess the nationality 🤔
Absolute idiots, one of my favorite spots in Osaka just to relax and enjoy the city view,
Last time I went I saw a bunch of idiots smoking and just throwing the cigarette butts onto the grass?
Some people shouldn’t leave their country.
I think this is abhorrent behavior that should be punished. But again, “a man who appears to be a tourist” shouldn’t be allowed to be a descriptor in news stories. Either find out for sure, or just say “a man.”
Should I go to nearest church and perform some pull-ups while hanging on the cross?
I really do not understand mindset of those people.
If Japanese really cared about ‘sacred’ sites, then they wouldn’t have a shrine for war criminals
Giving sanseito free ammunition
…
I really despise people sometimes. As a Brit it’s like seeing people grab the reins on the kings guards horses and all that stuff, I just would never dream of going to another country and being so inconsiderate and disrespectful.
I want to live in Japan but i’m a little bit scared sometime to bé associated with theses guys even if I have a normal behaviour
Idiots like these exist in every country. The problem is money doesn’t always bring with it common sense, decency, civility, or the etiquette to behave appropriately as required in certain countries. People should be educated on DOs and DON’Ts in every country – like an exam before traveling anywhere to truly judge civic eligibility for being in a specific country. Sounds too over the top but it’s one way to do it without being too extreme in the consequences department after the deed has already been done.
I live in Japan and I really wish more people would tell people who are being assholes to fuck off. I swear a lot of people (not all) who visit Japan truly think of it as their anime fantasy theme park and don’t view the locals as actual people. I’m convinced that’s why they do this.
Was the Australian guy that stole beer from a grave stone and filmed himself drinking it ever charged? Same with the old American man that carved his name onto the tori gate at Meiji Jingu, was charged as well?
I don’t like dumb tourists. And this is dumb.
But Japanese kids like to throw rocks at these. I were him, I would say I was playing torii no ue ni ishi o nageru and lost my rock.
Last year, a Japanese kid [snowboarded](https://unseen-japan.com/japan-pro-snowboarder-shinto-shrine/) on one
Doesn’t really feel all that sacred when anime keychains and Suntory vending machines are in eyeshot.
But replies are gonna be bro have you seen the mysticism of a Japanese wedding at Meiji Jingu she had a veil and walked slow bro
> sparking outrage online
🙄
Okay, let’s actually read the story…
> a man believed to be a foreign visitor
uh-huh.
>According to witnesses
…
>likely for social media.
…
Wow, not a lot of facts supporting this “article”, huh. Wonder how many people online who have nothing to do with this situation are going to spend a moment of the one precious life they get to live being outraged by it.
>The frustration voiced by Ilya reflects a broader concern: bad manners, if left unchecked, risk shaping perceptions of all visitors.
Only to racists who can’t tell two *alleged* “foreign visitors” apart.
One man it’s not like it’s abnormal thing to do pull-ups on. I live in Japan and find odd things to do pull-ups on. A stone structure is def not one of them. That is blatantly obvious
It doesn’t compute in my brain why would someone want to do this
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