Globetrotters' Japan: Places, Foreigners on the Tourist Circuit in Meiji Japan.

The globetrotter emergence in Japan and other Eastern countries was due in part to the Meiji Restoration. Japan wanted to modernize, and in order to do so needed to have good contact with the Western countries. The Westerners who helped "modernize" parts of Japan- building the railroads, helping construct hotels, and building steam engine ships- eventually gave way to the massive tourist boom brought about by Cook and his copy-cats. This also lead to travel guides for foreigners, with what to eat at restaurants, hotel etiquette, and how to pronounce some common phrases. Japan was soon completely Tourist-ready. Passports could be obtained to allow foreigners to travel anywhere, and there were hotels and onsen at every tourist destination to allow the foreigners a place to stay.

Photography during this time period was a very important trade. In the guidebooks, like would be seen in todays world, businesses could take out ads to promote their merchandise. The bigger the ad usually meant the more money spent on the ad. The biggest ads in the guidebooks found were full page photography advertisements. Photography was one of the biggest trades during this time for the traveling foreigners, as they could create their own albums based on the sight-seeing they had done in Japan. Photography was a highly competitive field, with many studios in Yokohama right around the corner from each other. The studios were mainly exactly like all of the others, but each tried to promote their studio as something with more to offer the travelers. The biggest new attempt to draw in tourists was the studio sessions where the globetrotters could wear traditional clothing and be photographed. Despite the rise of photography, the Japanese natives main source of documenting events remained in ukiyo-e. Photographers abandoned Beato's method of captioning photographs, instead preferring to title the pictures on the same page.

This image screams orientalist Japan. We see cherry blossoms, a tea house made in typical Japanese architecture, and a few women dressed in kimono seated outside. The only weird thing about this image is the guy in western clothing with a bike standing off the right side. This image would be valuable to globetrotters because it's possible they visited this tea house in Ueno Park. If they had visited, they'd want a photograph to remember the tea house and all of it's pink blossoms. If they had not visited the tea house, but still chose this image, they may have wanted it for how Japanese it seemed, but then for the mystery of the man with the bike hanging out in the corner. It's an interesting image of "traditional" Japan mixed with the modernization and tourism happening during this time that someone may have wanted a record of. It's also possible that a buyer would have wanted it simply for how scenic and picturesque the image is.