Not being Asian is the only saving grace from embarrassment as a tourist in Japan

I like anime, as do many others traveling to Japan. It’s a beautiful country with super clean cities, amazing public transport, beautiful nature, awesome food and kind people. When getting in a conversation with locals and telling them of your otaku hobbies they’re very receptive and surprised a westerner would have such interests. Nobody looks down on you, especially if you’re trying your hardest to communicate in your broken Japanese.
But in my 4th consecutive year of spending my summer here, I’ve noticed a change. There are a fuckton more tourists every year. I used to be able to sit on the Yamanote line during non-rush hours. Not anymore. Sure, young Japanese moving to large cities is part of the problem, but oh my god the tourists. They are a fucking embarrassment.
They get in the way of people in rush by standing side-by-side on escalators. They stop in the middle of a crowded street to take some photo. They talk so loud on the Shinkansen, they may as well be screaming. They dump garbage on the floor. Basically, they don’t fit in with the Japanese. Tourists acting differently is normal, but when you have too many of them acting out of line, it’s just sad.
So today I went to Kamakura and walked along the Enoden line to Enoshima. If you’ve been watching anime for a while, those names might ring a bell. It’s a famous setting for a lot of shows south-west of Yokohama. And there I took this photo:

It’s a crossing. Why do 50 people need to stand there for hours taking selfies, shooting videos and I don’t know what? I got there, waited a minute for the first train to cross, took the photo and walked on. Seeing students from the nearby high school having to take the over-packed train was just sad. I can’t even imagine what they’re thinking when walking past that — why the hell is there a bunch of gaijins at a random crossing in front of a high school?
And as written at the link above, going to Kimi no Na wa places is even worse. Especially the stairs in Shinjuku. Here’s my write up of that if anyone’s interested.
The good thing is, however, that most tourists are Asian so if you’re lucky enough to be white or black, you will be looked upon with a little less disdain than Chinese.
Here’s my plea; if you go to Japan, please try to behave in a way expected of Japanese. Major cities are very crowded and they can’t function without order. If you follow the crowd and be considerate enough to try and go as much out of the way as possible, you’ll leave a good impression. Also, as a travel tip, go out of Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kyoto and you’ll see a totally different side of Japan. The Japan without tourists.
