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Among a host of first world problems is the mysterious Paris Syndrome – that horrible feeling you get when you realize the beautiful City of Lights isn’t all that you imagined it to be. And strangely, the worst to be affected by this bizarre condistion are the otherwise calm and collected Japanese.
As ridiculous as it sounds, Paris Syndrome is very real. Because of the way the city is represented in the media, especially the Japanese media, a lot of people labor under the misconception that Paris is a quaint, friendly little place with affluence reeking in its every corner.
The women are imagined to be dainty and beautiful, the city is expected to smell like Chanel No. 5, parks filled with pigeons and waiters bursting into song at the drop of a hat.
In fact, many Japanese really believe that Parisians are all thin, gorgeous and unbelievably rich. Inevitably, their bubble is burst on their very first day in the city.
Paris, just like any other city in the world, has its own share of pros and cons – a fact conveniently glossed over by most media outlets. The world prefers to immortalize Paris in a certain way, and that’s perhaps the biggest contributor to Paris Syndrome. But the truth of the matter is that the fashion capital of the world does have an ugly side to it as well.
Many Parisians are quite unaccommodating of foreigners, especially those who do not speak French. Conversations in any other language are downright unpleasant, even more so with people who seem to loathe your existence on their land.
The service industry isn’t always all that courteous to tourists either. The public transportation, far from being jolly metro cars, often consists of hot, overcrowded trains filled with screaming children and groping couples.
Now, we’re not saying Paris isn’t beautiful, it is. But unlike cities like New York that have embraced their darker side, Paris is still presented as though it is the perpetually spinning world inside of a little girl’s music box. The difference may not seem like much to someone reading this, but for a first-hand experience, it can be hard to digest.
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