A defiant Australian tourist has hit back after he was criticized online for a scandalous stunt at a popular art exhibition in Japan.
The man was filming while visiting the aquatic art exhibition at teamLab Tokyo in February when he decided to take a dip fully clothed, even though swimming was prohibited.
“Go swimming at teamLab Tokyo,” the man known as Lil Mid told his viewers on TikTok.
He dove into the water and began swimming towards one of the facilities before he was stopped by what appeared to be a member of staff.
Two months later, footage of his antics continues to go viral online, giving a boost to his fellow Australian content creator. Sandy in Japanese to ruin the trick earlier this week.
Lil Mid dropped to the ground and began swimming freestyle in the no-swimming facility.
“This is why we can’t have nice things,” Sandy captioned the original video.
“This is the kind of gaijin that ruins it for everyone.”
Gaijin is a Japanese word that means foreigner or outsider.
‘Of course, not all gaijin. But when there are too many and there are enough, then it’s more trouble than it’s worth, and eventually the gaijin will be banned from doing more things,” Sandy said.
Many of his followers agreed and called the stunt disrespectful.
‘Gaijin here. “I’m also tired of the behavior of gaijin tourists,” one wrote.
“Average disrespectful Australian tourist,” said another.
‘I’m absolutely mortified, my husband and I went to Tokyo last May and teamLABS was one of the most incredible sensory experiences. This is just ridiculously sad and pathetic. It ruins it (for) everyone else,” one person wrote.
Others on social media were offended by Sandy’s use of the word gaijin.
‘Why do you call them gaijin? You yourself are a gaijin’, wrote one.
‘Is gaijin like the gringo word for Japanese?’ said another.
However, Lil Mid remained defiant and commented on the content creator’s post about the criticism of his stunt.
‘This place is a tourist attraction, right?’ he wrote.
‘I also received several messages from Japanese people saying this was fun?’
To respond, Sandy edited her comment into a snippet of her video.
“Yes, I can see your appreciation of your tourist attraction was greatly appreciated,” he wrote.
The teamLab website states that swimming is not permitted at the exhibition,
Viewers suggested that Lil Mid may have ended up with the ultimate punishment.
‘I have sensitive skin after going to the water section of teamLab. I have rashes on my legs. I also saw mold on the wall in that section and this guy wants to swim in that,” one viewer wrote.
“That’s what I was thinking, marinating in a shared puddle of foot soup doesn’t seem like a good idea,” said another.
Sandy, a content creator, shared her fellow Australian’s trick at an art exhibition in Tokyo, saying: “This is why we can’t have pretty things.”
In her video, Sandy also lists places that tourists have already been banned from entering in Japan due to their bad behavior, including certain alleys in Kyoto’s Geisha district, Gion.
“For rude foreigners who harass geishas and maiko, stick cameras in their faces, damage their kimonos, and trespass on private property.”
Sandy also talked about plans to build a “huge ass barrier” to block the view of Mount Fuji at a tourist spot because of “rude gaijin.”
“Have some respect, this is not your backyard,” he said.
Many other Asian tourist spots have recently clamped down on inappropriate tourist behavior.
Bali introduced rules a year ago that include banning foreigners from posting offensive and vulgar posts on social media.
Tourists should also avoid indecent behavior in public and respect local culture.
Sandy said Japan has banned tourists from walking certain alleys in Gion, Kyoto’s Geisha district, due to poor tourist behavior (pictured in Gion).