Banana

ELECTRIC NEWS
December 24, 2006
'Paris syndrome' makes some Japanese sick

FOR a handful of Japanese, visiting Paris can result in a culture shock so bad that they suffer mental breakdowns.

Called the 'Paris Syndrome', it hits polite Japanese tourists who encounter unexpectedly rude Parisians or find that the French capital isn't all that they expect it to be.

The experiences can be so traumatic for some that they experience hallucinations, the BBC reported.

'There are around 20 cases a year of the syndrome and it has been happening for several years,'Japanese Embassy spokesman Miyupi Kusama told the Guardian.

Just this year, at least four Japanese visitors have been repatriated and accompanied by doctors and nurses for the trip because of the shock they suffer.

The syndrome occurs because many Japanese come with a deeply-romantic vision of Paris, which they picture to have quaint cobbled streets, beautiful French women, and is filled with high culture and art.

But the reality can be extremely jarring.

For example, a Japanese visitor, who is not used to rudeness, can get hit by Paris Syndrome after an encounter with a rude taxi driver, or being yelled at by a waiter just because they stumble at speaking in French.

Coming from a culture where people are generally polite and helpful, experiences like this in an alien country can be too much for a Japanese visitor to handle.

'Fragile travellers can lose their bearings. When the idea they have of the country meets the reality of what they discover it can provoke a crisis,' Mr Herv Benhamou, a psychologist, told Le Journal du Dimanche.

The syndrome was first identified by Professor Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychiatrist working in France, about 20 years ago.

Most at risk are women in their 30s who usually have high expectations of what may be their first overseas trip.

'In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them,' explained Mr Bernard Delage of Jeunes Japon, an association that helps Japanese families settle in France.

'(In Paris), people using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill-feeling.'

I call this the banana syndrome. When bananas - yellow on the outside, white on the inside - realise that the white men and women whom they have imagined for years to be like gods, are just ordinary humans like their fellow Asians, this is what happens.

And in Asia, Japanese gals, followed by Taiwanese gals are real cock-suckers of white men. As for Singaporean gals, keke, they basically suck the dick of any man outside South-East Asia and China - which means the Japs, the Koreans and of course the Westerners. Not me though. I like "bananas", but not this type. It's the other type that I like. *slurp slurp* ;)