So heartwarming: Taiwanese netizen visits popular Japanese attractions with sign to thank locals and hand out pineapple cakes

Travel Center / Comprehensive Report

It has been five years since the Great East Japan Earthquake. The Japanese have never forgotten Taiwan’s heartfelt donation of 20 billion yen back then and have continued to express their gratitude in various ways. Even after all this time, their appreciation hasn’t faded. When Tainan was hit by a major earthquake on February 6, Japan immediately offered substantial help, which deeply moved many Taiwanese. Recently, one Taiwanese netizen turned that gratitude into action. On the PTT Japan Travel board, he shared his experience of holding a sign that read “Thank You, Japan” at famous Japanese landmarks, silently spreading this message of thanks. Other netizens called it heartwarming, touching, and a true display of “Taiwan-Japan friendship.”

Full text as follows:

Author / roxiang

This article was inspired by nino’s post [Travelogue] A Grateful Little Trip in Northern Kyushu on the Japan Travel board.
It motivated me to do something similar, and good deeds should be passed on. That’s why I mention nino at the beginning of this travelogue
as a sign of my respect.

During the Great East Japan Earthquake, Taiwan became the country that donated the most to Japan worldwide. Time flies—five years have passed
On the fifth anniversary of the disaster, March 11th, I saw an article posted by Tony Dan on Facebook:

Tooru Nogami
March 11, 14:09 •
To our Taiwanese brothers and sisters:
It has been five years since the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11th.
We Japanese will never forget the kindness we received at that time.
We are truly, deeply grateful, and we hope for your continued support in the future.

Over the past five years, Taiwan has continuously been thanked by Japan. As the number of Taiwanese visitors to Japan has increased year by year, many people have indeed felt the goodwill of the Japanese during their travels.

However, not many expressed gratitude back when Japan helped Taiwan after the 2016 Tainan earthquake. So I managed to convince my Japanese friend—who’s adorable, kind, and fluent in Chinese (she totally deserves praise for humoring me, XD)—to help me make a “Thank You, Japan” sign.

The message on this sign goes like this:

We are deeply, sincerely grateful for the warm support we received from everyone in Japan during the Tainan earthquake.
We have (indescribable) overwhelming gratitude toward everyone in Japan
Your kindness in comforting the victims is something we will never forget for the rest of our lives

Even if I only expressed my thanks to a few Japanese people, I was really happy to do so during this trip. Here are the places where I held up the sign:

▲1. Osaka

The photo was taken at Expo City near the crowded Expoland—it was also the first place I held up the sign, XD. By the way, since I was traveling alone, almost all the photos of me holding the sign were taken by Japanese people I asked for help.

▲2. Expo Park – In front of the Sun Tower Plaza, the iconic scene from "Hanzawa Naoki"

I took this photo using the convenient tripod provided at the plaza and set the camera timer. The act attracted quite a bit of attention... several Japanese uncles even took pictures of me with their cameras.

▲3. Kyoto – In front of Ryoan-ji Temple

There were many tourists, so I asked a Japanese uncle to take the photo for me.

▲4. Kyoto – In front of Kinkaku-ji Temple

Well, this one goes without saying — it’s a super popular spot with both locals and tourists XDD

▲5. Kyoto Inside Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion)

When taking this photo, I specially asked two Japanese girls in kimono to take a look first and expressed my thanks, and they were happy to take a photo with me too.

▲6. Kyoto In front of Ninnaji Temple

Since there weren’t many people, I just held up the sign for a bit and took the photo myself with the camera timer — didn’t bother anyone.

▲7. Kyoto In front of Ginkaku-ji (Silver Pavilion)

There were a lot of tourists. At the place where I got an inked temple seal, a friend translated and held the sign for me, then I gave a pineapple cake to one person — the three Japanese people inside the pavilion were pretty surprised, and one girl even said she really wanted to visit Taiwan.

▲8. Kyoto Daigo-ji Temple

I held up the sign to express my gratitude and asked them to take a photo with me.

▲9. Kyoto Heian Shrine

I bought pineapple cakes from Wu Pao-chun… really went all out... =口=

▲10. Uji Byodo-in Temple

▲11. Uji In front of Tominoko Honpo (Nakamura Tokichi flagship store)

▲12. Kyoto Some unknown place (seems like it was in front of Kyoto University)

This was actually when I was wandering around on my own, not sure where I ended up. It turned out to be some university’s graduation ceremony — the crowd was insanely huge, pretty much the whole street was packed. I quickly seized the moment to hold up the sign. A lot of Japanese people stared and whispered to each other, and some even took photos of me with their cameras.

▲13. Kyoto The hostel I stayed at, “AN”

This was the place where I got the most surprising reaction XD. When I showed the sign + gave a pineapple cake to the hostel staff, they went “Ah~~~~~~~~~~~~~” super loudly + their mouths dropped wide open. In the end, I asked them to take a photo of me at the hostel entrance.

That’s the whole story of my solo backpacking trip and holding up signs at various spots. During this time, I met a Japanese uncle who talked to me for quite a while, but unfortunately I couldn’t understand Japanese and could only keep nodding and replying “arigatou.” Every person is a tiny part of this world, yet they can have a big impact on it. Taiwan and Japan are both on the Pacific Ring of Fire — always be prepared for emergencies.

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