Page 104 - Microsoft Word - Guiding light final version 1855 1306.doc

Japanese oversea travellers was about five million, but in the next four years the number of travellers doubled to 10 million.
Everywhere you went there were swarms of Japanese tourists queuing, taking pictures, and buying lots of tartan and cashmere jumpers. We Japanese Guides would tread the cobblestone paths to the castle many times during those summers. We would go north for the monster, south for the poet, east for the castles, and west for the whisky.’
But was Scotland always so popular with Japanese tourists? The short answer is no.
Atsuko Clement, who arrived in Scotland in 1981, recalled the time that she could not find any information about how to get to St Andrews from Edinburgh, not even a decent map of Scotland in Japan (no google maps at that time!). Once she arrived, she found herself as the only Japanese person in town and was often asked to show Japanese visitors around. Sachiko McKay also experienced similar struggles to find a book about Scotland and ended up helping her author husband’s research of Thomas Glover. Though Glover’s name was very well known in Japan, the fact he was Scottish was virtually unknown until recently.
‘I too came to Edinburgh as a tourist and a language student in 1987,’ she said. ‘At that time there wasn’t a single guidebook of Scotland or any books about Scotland in Japan. Scotland was only mentioned in general English guidebooks and usually it was only about Nessie! With these new opportunities, suddenly, the Japanese public were keen to visit Scotland. After all, this is the land of whisky, golf, and home of the Bay City Rollers. Many dreamy eyed Japanese ladies also filled the coaches to find the perfect spot to take a picture of the heather covered glens, where Princess Diana had her honeymoon.’
Nevertheless, as Naoko Tamura found, you constantly need to remind them that they were in Scotland and NOT in England! ‘According to STGA’s statics, in 1978 there were no Japanese Blue Badge Guides’ Naoko said. ‘During the 80s only two people were qualified, Kozo Hoshino and Akiko Patterson. Sadly, Akiko passed away before her time in the early 90s. She was our mentor and friend and we all hold her memory dearly.
‘Clearly this wasn’t enough to meet the increasing demand of the market. Some of us were already working alongside a local Japanese agency in an unofficial capacity until STGA decided to hold a course to increase the number of Japanese speaking guides.
Reiko Inder was in Orkney working at a local school when a friend showed her a newspaper article about the guide course. Reiko decided to apply and was pleasantly surprised to find many fellow Japanese girls were attending the course. She said ‘The first course held in 1989 led to ten new guides gaining their qualification in 1990. More had qualified by 1995 and 1996 but then the numbers began to slow. Currently we have 15 qualified guides, with the majority gaining their qualification during the 1990s, and we are all still working strong. Reiko continued: ‘Such was the demand of the time, even with the new guides, there weren’t enough bodies to cover all the tours. Japanese wanted to see all of Scotland and itineraries often became so packed that they included a day trip to Loch Ness, a lunch trip to Skye from Inverness and back, and we would often even manage to squeeze in a half hour stop at St Andrews, all during a four day round trip of Scotland. Some tourist attractions started to provide Japanese translations of their leaflets and guidebooks, others hired Japanese speaking staff for the summer. However, at many of the remote places we toured, we were still greeted with bewildered smiles as we were the first ever Japanese visitors.’
Misako Udo loves taking Japanese tours to the Whisky distilleries. ‘Scotch Whisky was a luxurious item back then and for ordinary Japanese people, a distillery tour would never have crossed their minds until the Bubble Boom,’ she said. ‘Now they can’t get enough of it. Even after the bubble burst, the popularity of the whisky distillery tours has remained strong. ‘Looking back at the late 80s to mid-90s now, it was a great time for Japanese guides in Scotland. We didn’t have the convenience of smart phones, but people were eager to embrace the new experiences and wanted even more. We all loved and enjoyed telling stories of Scotland and showing off the beauty of our adopted country. We felt rewarded when the tourists told us they couldn’t wait to visit again,’ she added.
‘When the bubble boom burst, the Japanese economy shrank and the whole dynamic of tourism in Japan has been changed ever since. The cherry blossoms that bloomed so
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