Japanese guide book: Never call a Scottish person English

A new guide book for Japanese tourists visiting Scotland has warned them to avoid people wearing football shirts, and not to eat flat sausages.

The first official Japanese tour guide to Scotland also suggests visitors avoid council estates and never call kilts “skirts”.

Written in Japanese, The Insider’s Guide to Scotland is published by Edinburgh-based Luath Press.

VisitScotland said the comments should be taken with a “pinch of salt”.

In the book, potential visitors are told never to approach men wearing green or blue football tops, but to make sure they go on a pub crawl and get “merrily drunk” on Scottish whisky.

The book recommends that tourists try Mackie’s honeycomb ice-cream and ginger marmalade, but to give Lorne sausages a miss.

One of the book’s authors, Akiko Elliot, said: “I believe more Japanese will find the nature and culture of Scotland interesting and fascinating.

“Until now the emphasis of Scottish tourism was on visiting famous historical sites or playing golf, but younger people are showing a keen interest.”

The tourist guide advises Japanese tourists on how to buy drinks at a local pub, including instructions on buying “a round”, and also suggests visitors should have a “kitty” when going out as a group.

But the book is less positive about Scotland’s service sector, warning: “Please do not expect to have the same quick, polite and accurate service here to compare with Japanese service at shops, restaurants and hotels.

“Be patient anywhere in Scotland, it is not Japan.”

The book also warns Japanese visitors “never” to call a Scottish person English.

One section of the book is dedicated to explaining why many Scottish people do not carry umbrellas with them at all times.

The guide said: “When it rains, it seems only a handful of people use umbrellas in Scotland. That puzzles Japanese quite a lot because in Japan people would carry umbrellas all the time or leave the spare ones at the office for sudden showers.”

Visitors to Scotland are encouraged to get “merrily drunk,” to visit whisky distilleries, sample Scottish-staple Irn-Bru and use the word “aye” – which translates as “love” in Japanese.

A VisitScotland spokesman said the comments in the guide should be taken with “a pinch of salt”.

He said: “Scotland is ideally placed to capitalise on the Japanese market due to our fantastic tourism offering that we know is of huge interest with this market and a great relationship that has been built up over the years.

“The comments within the book should be taken with a pinch of salt and are probably indicative of the Scots sense of humour but clearly there’s a wealth of information in the book that showcases Scotland at its very best.”