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Essay

Going native

By Tony Laszlo


旅先の人の目線で考える

前回のエッセー(11月17日号)で、安心して外国旅行をするためには、旅行者に見えないようにすることが大切だと述べた筆者。 そしてもう一つ、旅を楽しむためのコツとして、今号で筆者が紹介してくれたのは、「地元の人の目線でものを考えること」だ。

Architectural wonders are grand, but for me their halls ring a little empty without some tangible "human'' element. To put it another way, I'm not going to spend all that money and travel all that distance, just to buy a ticket and wait in line to spend a few minutes inside a museum, temple or other place of interest. I'd rather just wait until they show it on television, with close-up shots from all angles. For me, traveling is all about the people that you brush elbows with.

But when traveling abroad, getting in close to the actual inhabitants of a given place is easier said than done.

For starters, you might not even see any at all. Take Rome, for instance. Go for a stroll near the Fountain of Trevi, the Spanish Steps or even some of the cafes and markets there. You're much more likely to bump into (or get bowled over by) a foreign tourist than to come across any real live Romans. Even if you do manage to sight locals — in Rome or elsewhere — dollars to donuts they've spotted you first, and well in advance.

If they haven't already fled the scene they'll have their ears perked up, on high alert. Your very presence as a tourist will prevent you from seeing them as they really are. Any naturalist worth his salt knows that you've got to blend into the environment if you want to observe animals as they are naturally in the wild. The same holds true when traveling abroad to observe a corner of humanity other than your own.

In my last essay I explained that tourism is safer when you try not to look like a tourist. Well, it's more interesting that way, too. If locals look at you and see not an outsider but someone who appears to be one of them, they'll carry on with what they were doing. You, just like a naturalist who has blended in, get to be right in the middle of things.

Some might argue that it is not possible for them to look like a local in their target destination, that differences in skin or hair color, or other physical characteristics might make the task difficult. Yes, difficult but not impossible, I would say. At least in most cases. There may be very few people with faces common in Japan living in, say, Greece. Likewise, in Laos, people who look like me are few and far between. But I have found that I can still blend in if I try, just by moving like a person on his way to or from the workplace, rather than one who just got off a plane.

The key thing to remember is not to be an obvious tourist, and to try to think like a native. Even if you don't succeed in blending in, your efforts will help you to see eye-to-eye with the people in the society you are visiting. Or, if not, at least it will give you a better chance of getting some close-up views of what life is really like. And that's why you're traveling in the first place, isn't it?



Shukan ST: Jan. 5, 2007

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