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Nearly two dozen Japanese tourists a year, mainly women in their 30s, are repatriated from the French capital, Paris, after becoming a victim to what has become called the 'Paris Syndrome'.
The Japanese embassy has a 24 hour hotline for those afflicted with this extreme form of 'culture shock'. In some cases the person requires immediate hospitalization, after repeatedly being confronted with rude taxi drivers, or impatient waiters, who shout at customers who cannot fluently speak the French language.
As the Japanese tourist is used to a more polite and helpful society, in which voices are seldom lifted in anger, the experience of their 'dream city' turns into a nightmare.
It is thought that this syndrome affects Japanese tourists more than any other nationality, because the Japanese have been inundated with advertising and film images of a perfect Paris.
Around a million Japanese tourists visit France per annum.
A similar type of mental affliction affects travelers to the holy city of Jerusalem. Afflicted tourists have been discovered wandering in the Judean desert wrapped only in hotel bed linen, or crouched at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher awaiting the birth the baby Jesus.
"There are three categories of tourists who get Jerusalem syndrome. The first group are clearly mentally ill people who arrive with psychotic ideas. The second and biggest group is the pilgrims who arrive with deep religious convictions," says Dr. Yair Bar-El, from the Kfar Shaul Hospital in Jerusalem.
This second group involves people who usually belong to way-out fringe church groups and think they must do certain things to trigger major events like the return of the Messiah, the war of Armageddon, or the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
"The third group are normally without any psychiatric history, or taking drugs," says Bar-El. "They don't see strange things, they don't hear voices, they remember everything and all the time they know they're John Smith or Yan Huber. They don't think they're another person and this reaction usually passes completely in five to seven days."
Those who have trouble in this way usually decide to do a series of purification rituals, like shaving their body hair, washing over and over and putting on white clothes, which are frequently hotel sheets. These people sometimes starts to weep, or sing Biblical songs very loudly. They visit the holy sites and quite frequently deliver a sermon, demanding humanity become, calmer, purer and less materialistic.
Every person concerned with tourism in Israel takes the Jerusalem Syndrome very seriously and is on the constant watch for afflicted visitors. On average 3 4 tourists per year are afflicted, though up to fifty persons were affected in 1999, possibly because of the millennial activities.
John the Baptist is the most popular syndrome choice for Christian men, while the Virgin Mary is the most popular among Christian women.
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