Two unnamed Taiwanese tourists gained instant notoriety yesterday after photographs of a Japanese hot spring hotel room that they are suspected of wrecking were circulated widely online.
The photos were reportedly posted on Facebook by a Taiwanese woman under the name Miki Juan. According to the page, the woman works at a hotel in Nasu District, Tochigi Prefecture, on Japan’s Honshu Island.
“Our hotel cares very much about the tourists from Taiwan and has been friendly to them. However, two Taiwanese tourists who stayed at the hotel last night chose to repay the kindness this way [referring to a photo of the room,” she wrote. “Four sliding doors and two windows in the Japanese-style room were completely destroyed. The hotel owner’s wife, who is also Taiwanese, was so angry that she was in tears.”
Photo: CNA
The photographs and messages were subsequently shared by more than 5,000 netizens, many of whom also responded to her posts, condemning the “acts of vandalism.”
“Do they think that they are still in a Taiwanese night market, playing some kind of ‘poke-and-win’ game?” one commenter said. “The compensation will probably mean nothing to these brats, whose parents will pay for the damage.”
Though Juan said the hotel has asked the travel agency to seek compensation on its behalf, another netizen using the name Kevin Chung said the hotel was being too nice to the suspects and should disclose their names so that they would avoid repeating such shameful acts.
Juan said that the two Taiwanese tourists are minors who had not traveled with their parents, adding that she could not reveal their names because it would violate the Personal Information Protection Act (個人資料保護法).
She also said that her aim was not to publicly shame them.
“My purpose is not to find or punish them. Instead, I want to get Taiwanese thinking about how they should behave themselves when they travel overseas,” she said.
“I worked in a Taiwanese travel agency before and it was really embarrassing to hear complaints about our clients from our business partners in Japan. However, I was really furious this time. We have worked so hard to encourage Japanese to pay more attention to Taiwanese tourists and all these efforts could go down the drain because of the misbehaving few,” she said.
Juan said that the two tourists apologized and paid for the damage, urging people to refrain from trying to identify and locate them.
Travel Agent Association secretary-general Roget Hsu (許高慶) said that this was the first time that he heard of such an incident.
“This case shows that more needs to be done to enhance citizenship education in Taiwan,” he said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued a sea alert for Typhoon Fung-wong (鳳凰) as it threatened vessels operating in waters off the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), the Bashi Channel and south of the Taiwan Strait. A land alert is expected to be announced some time between late last night and early this morning, the CWA said. As of press time last night, Taoyuan, as well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties had declared today a typhoon day, canceling work and classes. Except for a few select districts in Taipei and New Taipei City, all other areas and city
VIOLATION OF NORMS: China’s CCTV broadcast claimed that Beijing could use Interpol to issue arrest warrants, which the MAC slammed as an affront to order The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for attempts to intimidate Taiwanese through “transnational repression.” The council issued the remarks after state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) yesterday during a news broadcast aired a video targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋), threatening him with “cross-border repression” and saying: “Stop now, or you will be next,” in what Taipei officials said was an attempt to intimidate not only Shen, but also the broader Taiwanese public. The MAC in a statement condemned the threat, accusing Beijing of trying to instill fear and self-censorship among Taiwanese and
RSS