Starbucks, Bacolod. July 2017
[from FB post: July 14, 2017]
Gone are the "rich Japanese" here in SE Asia. Now it is all Korean. Here I sit in an American-inspired, Japanese-influenced Korean coffee shop (drinking what Americans think Italian coffee is)
NB: Japanese are still around - just more established and less obvious.
-- getting old and watching the world change in unpredictable ways.
When I arrived in Japan in 1984, I was introduced to the concept of kissaten, a coffee shop. The idea was extremely foreign to me because outside of New York City and perhaps San Francisco at that time, the very idea for an American to pay high price for a cup of coffee just to sit in a place and chat with a friend seemed idiotic. I was quite vocal about it, too. I steadfastly refused to patronize such establishments for a long time while in Japan, but eventually caved into local pressure and ended up being a regular at a very "cool" kissaten in Sendai , "Sugar Babe", whose owner, Hiroshi, became a good friend.
As with other things (like reality TV shows), the world eventually caught up with Japan. We all discovered Italian style coffee via a Seattle-based franchise. Habits changed, the world changed. Now I love to sit in a coffee shop and drink overpriced coffee and surf the internet as if it were something I had been doing all my life.
The face of tourism changed during this time as well.
I started travelling at the end of "the Age of the Ugly American". Those were the days of people actually getting ANGRY if a tourist spoke English. "How dare you assume I speak English!" I heard that countless times. It really was a "thing" and people were highly resentful of Americans abroad. Part of it was understandable as many people traveled who exhibited questionable behavior. Americans eventually grew up in a way, became less ugly, and morphed into better travelers. The stage was set for the Japanese.
For such a small nation, the Japanese had an incredible impact on world tourism (and world culture). I was amazed during the peak of the Japanese international travel boom at how many places sported bilingual English/Japanese signage. It was a testament to the economic power of tourism. Of course, the Japanese became memes of themselves before "meme" even existed. Group tourists following a flag, toting cameras, acting somewhat clueless, and occasionally doing something wildly inappropriate - those were the hallmarks of the Japanese tourist. Like a tourism tsunami, they washed over the world and left in their wake -- the Koreans.
Koreans, from a country even smaller than Japan, also left their mark on the world and world tourism. Their time to be globe-faring tourists was brief compared to the Japanese, but for a relative instant in time, the earth was flooded with Koreans who burst onto the scene as the Japanese had done before.
Nothing, however, could prepare the world for what was to come.... the Chinese. After years of privation and poverty, the new policies of the Chinese government allowed the accumulation of wealth. Millions of middle-class Chinese ventured forth from the Middle Kingdom and washed over the globe making the waves of Japanese and Koreans before look like pond ripples. The Chinese were EVERYWHERE and their behavior made even the worst days of "the ugly American" look quaint. The Chinese were to tourism what oil was to the industrial modern age - as much as everyone hated their addiction to it, they needed it. In spite of tourist venues loathing the masses (and I mean MASSES) of Chinese tourists, along with their human tsunami came a tidal wave of cash. No one was turning their nose up at that. When standing on the Great Wall in 1986 [see: Great Wall], I could never have imagined the world would be awash with rich Chinese tourists 30 years later.
Then coronavirus came and reset world tourism. What will happen after is still to be determined.
Thus, once upon a time in the Philippines which is crazy for all things American (and also Japanese) they rode a bit of the Korean wave, too. There I discovered the Korean version of Japanese Starbucks (Tom n Toms) which was actually a rebranded kissaten. I am just waiting to see what the Chinese will leave in their wake.
NB: I only had a photo of Starbucks in Bacolod not Tom N Toms.
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