insanely obnoxious Americans traveling in Japan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sheesh, shaming all Americans?!?! I’ve seen lots of obnoxious people and guess what? They come from everywhere. It would be pretty low class to single out a race, ethnicity, country of origin, or religious background because a couple people are out of line and/or not behaving as I see fit. Life’s easier if you just ignore and move on. If I came and posted on a message board every time I was offended, DCUM would ban me.

Oh please. OP is right, just admit it. You can hear Americans approaching from a mile away. There is no “inside voice” with us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One or two people here, one or two people there. Where is your evidence that Americans as a group act like this in Japan or anywhere? Anecdotal evidence of strongly held theories and beliefs is the norm on DCUM though so I guess you fit right in.

DP here. I’ve lived and traveled all over the world. Americans have a well-earned reputation of being very loud when out and about in public (or anywhere for that matter). OP is not wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In Paris, you used to be able to buy a museum pass that allowed you to enter certain museums as many times as you wanted over 2, 4, or 6 days.

The pass has now been changed to only one entry per museum. Why? Because tour leaders would bring bus loads of tourists, send half in with the passes, bring them out and then send the other half of the tourists in with the same passes. Not the way the passes were meant to be used and cheated the sellers of the passes.

Those tour leaders and the tourists were not from the US. People from all countries can be ugly tourists given half a chance.

This thread is about being loud. Cheating with passes is another subject.

[Anonymous]

I dunno OP. The US is a melting pot of all cultures, there are many strange, to me, behaviors that I witness all the time but just assume it is cultural and not always them being rude although unknowingly obnoxious. How is Japan immune to this? So only people who understand their culture and agree to adhere to their behaviors should visit? Or are we not allowed to be ourselves - and no I don't mean behaviors that are universally rude.

[Anonymous]

Japanese here.
It's mostly ok OP, no need to get so worked up. The expectations are not the same if you don't look Japanese (or asian). People will just glance and acknowledge that you are a foreigner, hence not really expect you'd keep to the same norms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blow my mind idiot Amerians travel abroad and do zero research on basic etiquette when traveling to another country. Case in point, yesterday traveling in the train there were two insanely idiotic Americans talking extremely loud on the train to each other like they were on the metro in DC. Before they were on you could hear a pin drop. Two other sets of ugly Americans were at the hotel gym in downtown Tokyo screaming at each other like they were at local planet fitness (while lifting puny weights), then had the gall to leave plates and racked plates on barbells over the floor. Also, on of started a 40 minute phone conversation out loud while working out. And that ignored all of the signs in the gym prohibiting talking on the phone. How many social norms can a handful of Americans break in 2 days? So obnoxious. So crass.


Americans need to get it through their thick skulls that they're not special when traveling abroad and need to learn how to shut the hell up. No one wants to listen to to idiots. You're not in the US. Take a dose of humble pie and shut it.

The behavior you described would also be considered annoying in the U.S. I hate when people have phone conversations in public places, and especially hate when it's somewhere like a gym with a sign prohibiting talking on the phone. That's just bad across all cultures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In Paris, you used to be able to buy a museum pass that allowed you to enter certain museums as many times as you wanted over 2, 4, or 6 days.

The pass has now been changed to only one entry per museum. Why? Because tour leaders would bring bus loads of tourists, send half in with the passes, bring them out and then send the other half of the tourists in with the same passes. Not the way the passes were meant to be used and cheated the sellers of the passes.

Those tour leaders and the tourists were not from the US. People from all countries can be ugly tourists given half a chance.

This thread is about being loud. Cheating with passes is another subject.

Huh. I thought it was about the ways that tourists can be obnoxious. That's what the thread title says.