Pictures Taken as a Tourist

How do we know a tourist when we see one? Often the presence of a (digital) camera aimed at cultural monuments ignites a spark of recognition. As a "foreigner" (外国人) resident of Japan, I'm aware that I stick out due to my physical appearance, as well as my broken Japanese language. I can usually distinguish myself from tourists by, say, listening to my iPod on the local train, rather than taking pictures of Mt. Fuji from the shinkansen (bullet train) window. But sometimes I am a tourist, and visiting UNESCO World Heritage Sites (click for Wikipedia ariticle) with my camera gives me away. Though the word "foreigner" provokes images of xenophobia in many Americans, many people use the word "tourist" in a similar way. Tourists are those who "ain't from around these parts." Tourists are marked as foreigners.

In my year and a half in Japan, I've been extremely privileged to travel within the country, and recently to southern and northern India and Nepal. When I travel, I try to be mindful of which hat I'm wearing (am I a tourist? a photographer? a budding anthropologist? a religious seeker?). For example, while doing the 88 temple pilgrimage (ohenro=お遍路) in Shikoku, I rapidly changed roles between backpacker, pilgrim, tourist, and social documentarian/religious scholar/amateur anthropologist. Before the trip, I had imagined actually changing hats when switching between these roles, from straw-hatted pilgrim to urbane-hatted backpacker, etc. But when I was out there, I was mentally cycling through these roles so quickly that it became impossible to distinguish them so neatly, and they often overlapped. Again, this is an example of my limited ability to be mindful

Though I often don't like being a tourist, I've learned to sometimes embrace the role, as there is nothing inherently problematic about tourism itself. It's natural that when we see something unique and culturally significant that we want to take a picture and share this experience with others, to potentially start a dialog, and to try to make sense where we have been. So here I am sharing some of my pictures from my recent travels for this purpose. I'll try to add captions to give some context. Hope you enjoy!

Nara, Japan: Kento, my "host brother," and I. I met him and his mother in San Francisco

Kento's grandmother took us to "Bentenza," a type of theater similar to Kabuki featuring a samurai play sandwiched between two acts of dancing. The actors, including this one, are traditionally male.

Kento, his Mom and I went cherry blossom viewing at a park nearby their house.

桜=sakura=cherry tree

We took a day trip to Hiroshima and visited the iconic Itsukushima Shrine, one of Japan's top three sights.

hilltop view

We visited the Hiroshima Memorial Dome, which commemorates the victims of the atomic bomb attack on the city. It now stands as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an international symbol for peace.

And Hiroshima Peace Park.