Rude and obnoxious tourists

I've heard many times that Americans are hated abroad because of their behavior and unwillingness to learn the local language. I resent that stereotype as an American, but I am about to make the same one about people from another country.

First...I traveled around Japan for two weeks. I found everyone to be very polite and helpful. The only behavior I encountered that was odd was how the people in Tokyo would stare at us. Perhaps they were judging? Or maybe just curious about us large blond people.

I've encountered many Japanese tourists in my last few weeks of travel. They are loud, rude and act as if they are the only people on the planet. I was physically pushed twice so one of them could get ahead of me in line. Do they realize or care about the reputation they are creating?

It could, perhaps, be said that Americans don't act differently abroad. If they are rude at home they will be rude elsewhere. And I do know plenty of loud and obnoxious Americans. But the Japanese tourists I've encountered are very different from the gracious people I met in Tokyo and other cities in Japan. Maybe their culture is so rigid at home travel is their escape from being polite?

Or is this all evidence of people struggling to understand people from other places, or people who look different?

Take away

Take away is the British term for food to go. They even give you a discount on food and drink if you consume it elsewhere. Or....are they charging more to eat on their premises?

I went to a Starbucks this morning to buy a bottle of water. It was 20 cents cheaper for take away.

I'm not sure how aggressively they enforce this. I didn't stick around to find out.

I had excellent take away twice while staying in Crawley (near Gatwick airport and GovDelivery's UK office). The first was fish and chips. The second was chinese.

Pictures

I walked by Parliament and Westminster Abbey this morning on my way to my last London meeting. I walked by dozens of people taking pictures. I wonder two things...

1. How many times has Parliament and the famous clock been photographed? There is no way to know for sure, but that number might be even larger than US's debt.

2. Why do people continue to photograph famous buildings when it is so easy to download pictures from the internet? Do they need to prove they were really there?

Since I don't own a proper camera I download lots of pictures from the internet - especially for this blog. I know I was there!