Rather than promoting conventional tourist attractions alone, the tourist industry could highlight cultural differences that may seem “strange” — and exotic — to Japanese tourists, Yuka Aoki, author of It’s So Weird!, said in Taipei yesterday.
Aoki, from Japan, spoke at a forum on promoting Taiwan abroad and improving ties with Japan.
Aoki first visited Taiwan as a tourist in April 2002 and became fascinated with the many “strange phenomena” she observed on the trip.
She made another trip to Taiwan in May, then moved here in November that year to learn Mandarin, and has stayed ever since.
“It was very funny to see people sticking their cellphones into the gap between their heads and helmets to talk while driving scooters,” Aoki told the audience at the forum.
“I also found it quite strange that many restaurants hang toilet paper rolls on the wall for customers to use as napkins — in Japan, toilet paper rolls are only for toilets,” Aoki said.
Aoki began writing about her observations of these cultural differences on a personal blog and later published the book It’s So Weird!
After the book became a hit in Japan, Aoki began organizing events in her country to promote tourism to Taiwan.
“I took a picture of toilet-roll napkins in a small noodle restaurant near where I live in Taipei and put it in my book,” she said.
“The owner later told me that many Japanese tourists went to eat at his restaurant and took pictures of the toilet roll,” Aoki said.
She said she believes that, apart from conventional tourist spots, small differences that seem odd to the Japanese are a strength that could help attract more visitors — and gradually enhance the understanding between the two peoples.
Koh Se-kai (許世楷), Taiwan’s former representative to Japan, who also attended the forum, said the government should choose someone proficient in the Japanese language and culture to serve as the next representative to Tokyo so that the “good relations between the two countries may continue.”
“Many Japanese politicians are worried that President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] may be more anti-Japan and pro-China. I’m also worried,” he said.
“So it’s very important to select the right person for the position,” Koh said.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS