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I often hear about people who came to Paris with high expectation and were disappointed because of litter and cigarette butts on the streets, which is why I started picking up trash.

13 Comments

Yoshiko Inai, 40, who has served for two years as head of the Paris branch of a volunteer organization, also active in Japan, which picks up trash, mainly in the city's sightseeing areas. (Mainichi Shimbun)

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I don't think litter is the only thing that disappoints them about modern Paris.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Must be nice being independently wealthy enough to move to Paris for a couple years on a whim like this.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

Ms. Inai has actually lived and worked in Paris for almost 20 years, and holds a regular customer service job there. Hardly a rich person swooping in on a feel-good "helicopter" volunteer mission.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Remember that state called something like the "Japan syndrome", named after Japanese who were so disappointed after moving to Paris, and realizing the reality of the place, they fell into a neurosis or depression. It is the same for tourists I guess. I've never been there. I've never heard of such a condition in foreigners who move to Tokyo.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Nice gesture. Better would be for folks not to feel inclined to just drop their garbage wherever they feel like.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Hats off to Ms. Inai and her fellow volunteers for helping the public do a better job of cleaning up after themselves.

From what I've read the group she's worked with started in Tokyo, suggesting they must have thought littering was a problem there, too.

I've been to Paris at least a dozen times and though it's a big city with typical big city problems, I have never felt it had a litter problem different from any other big city I've visited, including those in Japan.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Now I remember. This is realization of the difference between image/fantasy and reality of Paris is called the "Paris Syndrome". This is attributed mostly to Japanese tourists. I wonder why.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Gokai,

Perhaps some here succumb to a unrealised fantasy of harmony with nature or unconditional omotenashi?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

I used to brag to my friends while in the US that the streets of Japan are so clean. Only after moving here did I realize that volunteers go out early in the morning to clean up. And at the beaches, events are organized for larger groups to pick up trash. Thank You! You would never see that in LA.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

The sewage aromas, oooohhh, the "aromas"!!! Dog droppings everywhere...

This is realization of the difference between image/fantasy and reality of Paris is called the "Paris Syndrome". This is attributed mostly to Japanese tourists. I wonder why.

They Japanese realise they paid a truckload of money to some travel agency only to be duped into visiting a place that's by far dirtier than any place in Japan, with not so many interesting points to be worth the trip. You should also know that most families can't afford many such trips over their lives, that to be disappointed like this must be really a hit... It doesn't happen with Chinese tourists - for them Paris must seem as clean as a pharmacy...

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It doesn't happen with Chinese tourists - for them Paris must seem as clean as a pharmacy...

The big cities in China are a lot cleaner than they used to be. With the cheap labor, they can afford cleaners. Some of the cities have less litter on the streets than Japan does now.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Strangeland, loooooioool good one :) . I would even believe you if I wouldn't visit Shanghai twice a year.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I've never been to Shanghai, so I can't say one way or the other. But I go to China a few times a year (I was there last week even).

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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