Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“A 65-year-old American tourist was arrested for allegedly etching letters onto a traditional wooden gate at a Tokyo shrine, police said on Thursday, the latest example of bad behaviour by visitors flooding back to Japan post-pandemic. Steve Hayes, who arrived in Japan for a holiday with his family on Monday, reportedly used his fingernails to scratch one of the gate’s pillars as a prank at Meiji Jingu, one of the capital’s most famous shrines. Hayes is suspected of carving five letters of the Latin alphabet in a space measuring roughly 5cm by 6cm on the structure at around 11:20am on Tuesday.” (11/14/24)