Posted on 10/23/2006 11:00:01 AM PDT by Millee
Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported Sunday.
"A third of patients get better immediately, a third suffer relapses and the rest have psychoses," Yousef Mahmoudia, a psychologist at the Hotel-Dieu hospital, next to Notre Dame cathedral, told the newspaper Journal du Dimanche.
Already this year, Japan's embassy in Paris has had to repatriate at least four visitors -- including two women who believed their hotel room was being bugged and there was a plot against them.
Previous cases include a man convinced he was the French "Sun King," Louis XIV, and a woman who believed she was being attacked with microwaves, the paper cited Japanese embassy official Yoshikatsu Aoyagi as saying.
"Fragile travelers can lose their bearings. When the idea they have of the country meets the reality of what they discover it can provoke a crisis," psychologist Herve Benhamou told the paper.
The phenomenon, which the newspaper dubbed "Paris Syndrome," was first detailed in the psychiatric journal Nervure in 2004.
Bernard Delage of Jeunes Japon, an association that helps Japanese families settle in France, said:
"In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them ... People using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill feeling."
A Japanese woman, Aimi, told the paper:
"For us, Paris is a dream city. All the French are beautiful and elegant ... And then, when they arrive, the Japanese find the French character is the complete opposite of their own."
I was about to ask if "Paris Syndrome" was a new type of STD...
Rudeness leads to psychosis? Geeez...
France is a STD
It's a side effect of... Islam.
"For us, Paris is a dream city. All the French are beautiful and elegant ... And then, when they arrive, the Japanese find the French character is the complete opposite of their own."
Welcome to the party, pal. We've been saying for years that the French are turds and we weren't kidding.
I visited Paris and had a great time.
Of course, I think most of the Parisians were on vacation at the time. Explains a lot.
The longer you are there the better it gets. It is two cities in one.
Oh for pete's sake...
But not in the summer (95 degrees with 90% humidity!).
For some reasons, Japanese still have obsesion about European culture. If we look at their 'cartoon' movies, there are a lot of European elements in them (clothes, architectures, etc., including blonde, blue-eyes heroes).
I would love to go to Ireland one day. The drinking culture appeals to me. ;o)
I knew most of the DUmmies had been to France!
what part of cheese eating surrender monkey doesn't translate to Japanese
Paris Syndrome my butt. The locals are a helluva lot friendlier in Paris than they are in London. Being able to speak French probably helps, but I speak the language in ENGLAND too and they're still rude as hell.
I would love to go to Ireland one day. The drinking culture appeals to me. ;o)
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Drinking culture... hmm.
Methinks the Russians would teach the Irish a thing or two about drinking. They drink vodka as if it were water.
One day far in the future when I retire, I would like to bike around Ireland. Hit the pubs and try to see the places that aren't on the beaten path.
The only rudeness I have encountered in London was from a French waiter who apparently didn't know that I could still remember a tiny bit from my high school French class. I don't like being made fun of because I ordered a Coke with my meal.
Ireland, however, was the nicest, warmest most genuine place I have ever been. I don't think we met a rude person there the entire time. Even when the service in the restraunts was slow, at least they weren't rude about it.
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