elrubius' 2009 Tokyo photo spot became a global fan pilgrimage 17 years later

aakashgupta · x · 2026-10-25

In 2009, a 19-year-old Spaniard — Rubén Doblas, now known as elrubius with 40.7M YouTube subscribers — took an ordinary vacation photo outside a Tokyo electronics store, before his channel even existed.
17 years later, fans fly in from across the planet to recreate that exact shot; the quoted tweet reads 'I waited 17 years to take this photo.'
The author frames it via Japan's seichi junrei (holy-site pilgrimage) culture, which began with anime fans visiting real locations and now extends to influencer culture — an ordinary street corner turned fan pilgrimage site.
A notable creator-economy case: how a content asset keeps generating offline 'check-in' value years later.

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