American Tourist Arrested for Vandalizing Japanese Shrine (Like an Idiot)

American tourist and alleged disrespectful jackass, Steve Lee Hayes, was arrested in Tokyo on Wednesday after carving into a torii gate at the legendary and beautiful Meiji Shrine.

Overall, it’s probably not best to carve anything into anything referred to as a “shrine.” Shrine implies deep respect, a place that can be regarded as holy in its association with divinity. In this case, it’s a shrine honoring Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, considered foundational figures in the formation of modern Japan.

Carving “Jeff wuz here” or whatever into anything that can even loosely be described as a shrine important to local culture seems like such a big no-no that we should all be born knowing not to do it. But I guess some people can’t help themselves.

Maybe the most surprising fact in this whole story is that Hayes wasn’t an unruly teen but a 65-year-old father on vacation in Japan with his family. According to the Japan Times, Hayes was etching his family’s names into a gate. He only got a few letters into it as he etched into the woods using a fingernail before he was captured on security camera footage.

Hayes, who arrived in Japan this past Monday, was then detained at a hotel in Tokyo. No word yet on what’s happened to him since. I’m not implying that he’s dead or been “disappeared” or anything. I mean that no news organization out there knows what happened next in the story, including us.

I guess we can add this to the long, ever-growing list of Dipshit tourists being disrespectful in places they don’t realize absolutely require the utmost respect and decency. Like the asshole who did a Nazi salute at Auschwitz “as a joke.”