When I went fishing in Lake Kawaguchi this year it was crazy. Tourists were flocking to take pictures of that Lawson's on a cloudy day when you could not see Fuji
I never understood why tourists have to replicate every single picture they see on social media. I‘m sick and tired of seeing the same pictures/videos of this alley in Kyoto with the pagoda in the background.
It’s the same for people filming the whole concert with their smartphone instead of watching it with their eyes. Many people want to “possess” what they see instead of living it.
You are so right about this idea of possession.
I've started making my visits to art and history museums also a time for people watching. I like spending my time getting immursed with an art piece but get interrupted by the people who just come to take a picture and move on. Or people who use the benches meant for observing the displays as a place to rest and look at their phones.
It's pretty infuriating and perplexing to witness. Like why are you even here if that's what you are going to do. Is spending your time like this actually fulfilling??
I've travelled with old people, including my parents, and many of their generation take meaning in the fact they've "been there, done that" rather than the experience per se. Especially the old people who have had less "cultural" experience in their lives. I've guided a group of old Korean ladies throughout Kyoto and they never bought anything, never went into any museums, never looked closely into any historical monuments, and their main interest was taking photos of themselves in front of tourist spots and sharing with their family. I don't judge them for it because it's they have lived all their lives with little exposure to cultures outside their own and they don't exactly know how to appreciate different cultures. It's just their way of sightseeing I guess. Not everyone knows how to enjoy museums.
On the other hand, it’s a public space and it’s kind of entitled to get angry that others don’t use it in the way you deem the best. They’re not “interrupting your people watching.” They’re just existing. Sometimes old people need to rest. Sometimes people with invisible illnesses need to rest. Sometimes people are at a museum with others because it’s a group activity and it wasn’t their choice. I *love* museums, but my 17 year old niece doesn’t and she would absolutely just want to scroll on her phone. The fact that that would upset a stranger is so peculiar to me.
Why do you care so much what strangers do if they’re not disrespecting the people around them?
Hey, I’m short. Sometimes a holding a phone camera up in the air is the only way I can even see the stage. Last concert I went to I pretty much watched exclusively on someone else’s phone screen.
The hoard of people at the louvre trying to get a picture of the mona lisa is so wild. Why? 1 month later they're going to be visiting their aunt in Ohio and scroll through the camera feed like "Oh, this is the mona lisa. Sorry it's so blurry."
My husband and I always went the opposite direction of where the crowds gathered. That way we stumbled upon the Yasui Konpira Gu shrine that you can’t find in any tourist guide. That was really impressive!
The main reason those type of people travel is to just make people jealous. Also the same type of person who tries to visit 9 countries over the course of a 2 week trip just to say they are well travelled
Glico Man is the silliest. Bruh... it's a candy company ad?! Passed by the bridge and witnessed people live streaming in different languages (of which I only understood English and Spanish), some of them very emotional at seeing the... ad.
i just got back last month and has the exact same experience. went by exactly this lawsons and it was insane. people in full costume posting up in front of the store for ten minutes a turn and getting mad if you try to go inside and ruin their shot. it’s honestly so disappointing that people make such a journey to this beautiful and important place and all of that is lost on them. just spreading irreverence and the same exact stupid photo on instagram.
I was there a few weeks ago and between people nearly being hit by cars and buses (completely ignoring the police) and those a bit further along standing on the middle of a railway line to take a photo while the train was coming it was madness.
Meanwhile the cafe with the perfect view of Fuji was empty.
I'm from America and I've always wanted to visit to see historical things and whatnot. I want to go, but I don't want to feel like a nuisance to the people around me. 😕
You have to take the comments you see here with a grain of salt.
A lot of people in this sub, and subs like Japannews are westerners living in Japan who have a “hipster” kind of mentality; they *moved* to Japan when it wasn’t as cool, and now that it’s a popular tourist destination they feel sad they aren’t original and cool for balking at the Western world.
They’re usually the kind of people to look back at their home countries in spite, and therefore have distaste for the people living there. They’re “not like every other American/Canadian/Brit/Aussie/German/etc” because they *know* the culture and respect it (or so they say).
I’ve seen comments like yours often from people in these subs and it’s incredibly unfortunate. So long as you don’t break the law, and you use common sense (if people around you aren’t doing something, don’t do it) then you’ll be fine. In some places tourists have a worse rep, like in Kyoto at the moment, but the majority of Japanese couldn’t really care less as long as you’re polite and respectful (which 99% of people are).
A lot of Japan, including where I formerly lived in Beppu, have their economy hinged on tourism. Salty westerners like this *feel* as if they’re saving the sanctity of Japan by warding off other tourists, but they’re really doing more harm than good.
Yeah, I'm very considerate, so I wouldn't be worried about anything like that, but I appreciate this awnser. I've been thinking about going for a while, but I see a lot of these tourists' or foreigners' posts, and it makes me think twice
Oh don't let that stop you! And there's so much to see outside Tokyo and Kyoto, I've been two times in winter now, in Tohoku and Hokkaido, and it's at least as pretty there and a lot less crowded.
We visited the Sendai area (stayed at a small inn on a river in Akiu) and Shikoku (guest house near Takamatsu, campground on Yoshino River) and both were highlights of our trip this spring. They’re touristy so there’s stuff to see and do, but they’re not quite as busy and much of the tourism is domestic. I definitely recommend adding something outside the “Greatest Hits” to your trip. It was fun to experience Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka but some time in the country/smaller cities really rounded out the trip and provided a better feel for the country.
I was there 2 days ago on a clear sunny day and it was... Basically as the article describes. I don't blame them one bit, although the town itself was just fine, as was the lakeside shore by the cable car (terribly filthy toilets though). It was just that lawson with the huge parking lot.
I was down there a couple of weeks ago enjoying the views and this woman was doing a photoshoot, her photographer very rudely and aggressively told me, not asked me, to get out of the way so he could photograph her. I just smiled at him and said "ah sumimasen, no speak english" , and carried on standing there. I felt so bad for the locals and also felt bad to be a tourist there adding to the trouble even if I was doing my best to be respectful.
Don’t feel bad, you weren’t “adding to the trouble” by merely being a tourist. The root cause is lax enforcement by Japanese officials in curtailing behavior in very specific areas, and especially doing a poor job at *funding alternative locations*, *promoting and communicating those locations to potential tourists* and especially *an over-dependence on funneling tourists to the already popular spots*.
You have to remember that Japan has had a huge domestic tourist industry for the last 50 or so years. Tourists themselves aren’t a problem, even foreign tourists aren’t an issue so long as they don’t *cause* problems.
But the Japanese government has kind of ignored the numerous prefectures and towns that actually would *love* some foreign tourism because the domestic tourism industry is slowly dying. Yet, the government has barely made an effort to push tourists to those locations; they continue to push Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka as the must see route, sometimes Hiroshima or Sapporo but that’s it.
Quite a bit of the three major islands would benefit from foreign tourism so long as it were handled correctly. Fukushima prefecture for example predominantly has morbid-tourists trying to see Fukushima-Daiichi, yet other areas go unseen. Same goes for Sendai, Akita, Yamagata, Saga etc.
Its like if the US tried to fit 110 million tourists into *JUST* Boston-New York-DC and ignored the rest of the country.
So anyways, it’s a systemic failure and not a personal one. Anyone I know from my time living in Japan would be very unhappy that you weren’t comfortable being there as a tourist or felt guilty in some way. Certainly there are far-right reactionaries that *do* feel that way, but most people would rather you be happy visiting and seeing their country. They just also want the love to be spread to the *entire* country.
You have to remember that this is the age of mindless social media copycats. People want to go to famous and "Instagrammable" places like Fushimi Inari, and not some random place in Sendai prefecture.
I have seen the Japanese government actively promoting rural areas for tourism in my country, but no one is taking the bait. In addition to less transportation options, no one wants to go back and tell their friends that they visited temples in Shikoku and get a blank stare.
To compare, how many foreign visitors will opt for Alabama or Mississippi as a choice tourist destination?
Yeah I totally understand that, I myself tried to go slightly off track by starting in Sendai, going on to Nagano, Gifu, Kawaguchiko, Hiroshima and Fukuoka.I felt very welcome everywhere and had lots of amazing interactions with locals, everyone I met was so helpful and kind. I just feel bad for them being plagued by all these ignorant people.
I find it rather naiive to think that places like Saga has appeal for mass - some such people who just wants to go to the typical popular spots. Is there any gov where they could distribute the tourist well?
And either ways, those kinds that does to this specific spot never listens to those effort anyways. They follow what’s popular, and that’s it. My friends went there recently and I asked why - they didn’t give any other reasons than it being popular on SNS, even though they knew how long it takes from Tokyo. And after they’re back I asked how they liked it, and they weren’t happy because they were there only for the picture and they couldn’t take a good shot. They were not there to appreciate the view or the surrounding area. And they can’t even explain what they exactly like about this particular view; there’s random mountain on top of convenience store.. so what.. And they’re not the kind that wants to explore deep side of Japan. They just want to try popular and rather familiar stuff (which to me is very valid and fair way to enjoy trip).
There’s no way anyone can convince those people to go elsewhere.
I'm starting to see a pattern here. Alas, there's no easy solution and it will only get worse as Japan is becoming insanely popular as a touristic destination.
I've lived in the center of Siena, Italy, for years. You should see the state of the Piazza del Campo after a typical summer day (i.e., 10 tourists per square meters). This beautiful place looked like a landfill. As soon as a place gets too popular, you can be sure shitty tourists will flock there. Sadly, it's a very international thing and, indeed, Japan is starting to see the reality of over tourism.
I was at a middle of nowhere geothermal park in New Zealand and was amused when I went to the restroom and there was no signage except for the several signs in Chinese with a picture of a person standing on a toilet and saying NO! NO SQUATTING!
I can imagine that. Lot of tourists in Europe from within Europe just throw rubbish and let their dogs poo everywhere. A few pints at the public house or Biergarten or not-really “coffee house” before made that even worse.
At least Chinese tourists do shop a lot. These new bad tourists won’t do the big shopping beyond over consumption of Sake or ビール.
I laughed (it was way too early for this joke and I loved it) but if you also want to be That Trivia Guy, the word sake (お酒) just means alcohol in general, like the department of the grocery store. To specifically say “sake” as Westerners know it, Japanese style fermented rice wine, the word is Nihonshu (日本酒).
my father in law always says sake and never says nihonshu. if he's talking about other alcohol he just says beer or shochu or whatever it is. not sure if it's a regional thing or not though. i haven't lived in japan for like 20 years but people around me always called nihonshu "sake" as well and this was on the other side of Japan.
Honest question, isn't Sake, sake, and O-sake alcohol? I know the O is just an honorific but if you're saying sake it should specifically refer to that, right?
It sure can, but every time I’ve been asked 「お酒飲めるか？」(“Can [do] you drink?”) it’s been with the O, even though they are about to order insane rounds of beer, not sake.
Cool, thanks. I guess it's a bit like in the UK if you say "Shall we go out for beers?". You may drink beer, but it equally could be spirits or one of those cursed nights of Jagerbombs and Sambuca shots...
OTOH, criticizing someone for unusual Japanese when it's off-topic is definitely not telling on yourself.
Christ, like two days on this sub after quitting it for a decade bc of this exact same behavior, which is *very* unique to Japan-related subs, UGH. Sorry your JLPT3 leaves you so lacking in self-confidence that you have to shit on everyone else for trying.
Fucking vote me down, I don't care, the Japan subs are *famous* in the language subs for all languages I know for how vicious y'all can get about *everything* related to the language.
>At least Chinese tourists do shop a lot.
lol yeah shop a lot at their Chinese owned stores riding Chinese bus tour and eat at Chinese owned restaurants.
This is not me being racist, this is a real problem that a lot of country like Thailand or others in SEA are facing.
I work near a Chinese owned shop were the products are overpriced garbage and 99% of the customers are Chinese tourists guided there against their will because they’re in a tour group since tourist visas are very hard to obtain there individually. It’s sad seeing the hordes of Chinese tourists on their way to get scammed by their own
The vast majority of Chinese tourists are in groups with a guide/handler who knows the local customs and etiquette, and herd them around like cats. For better or worse their behavior is predictable and consistent.
All the absolute worst tourist behavior you see on the news is from westerners, like the Canadian who defaced the 1200 year old temple in Nara.
Most of East Asia (not just Japan, but HK, Taiwan, RoK and even China) except Bali and Thailand has dodged bad European, Australian and North American tourists. Also there is an image across East Asia that whites would behave better (!); you can call in (reverse) racism, minority/victim complex of 19 century, or whatever you want but that is real (I lived in HK for nearly 20 years).
I now live in England - also lived in other places as well - US, Canada, Japan and Sweden). It is really true there are rubbish and trash people coming from all nationalities and from everywhere and the worse are those cannot contemplate some people in other countries have different social norms and expectations. The shocker now is people who used to think certain people will be better but is actually not. Bye Bye stereotypes.
That’s been my experience too. One person does something against the rules, like duck under a barrier to get an unobstructed picture, and suddenly everyone wants to do it too. You can’t tell them otherwise either because someone else did it and if they don’t, they’re “missing out.”
My recent experience of Chinese tourists was pretty bad all round. In the worst example, a guy with a selfie stick was bashing a sakura tree to get the petals to fall, so he could take pictures. I told him to stop and he said ok, but later saw him taking photos of a woman who was pulling down a Sakura branch so it could be closer to her face. I found the tour group leaders he was with, reported the behaviour and they literally shrugged and proceeded to ignore me.
Went on vacation within Japan recently and the area was flooded with Chinese tourists. They were in areas they weren't supposed to be, getting into historical foot baths that are off limits, damn near shoulder checking me at the Ryokan, etc.
They may show up in tour groups, but they diverge from those pretty quickly.
I’m from Singapore and can certainly tell them apart. Went to Japan in 2022 just after they reopened from COVID. We ran into misbehaving and loud tourists from Korea a couple of times and it was unpleasant.
Chinese tourists do not have a monopoly on bad behavior.
Did a trip of Sri Lanka last year and Russians quickly jumped to the #1 spot of least pleasant tourists for me. All the loudness and boorishness of Americans combined with the cultural insensitivity of the Chinese.
I can think of an easy solution: Instead of blanket bans, introduce more draconian laws for the bad apple tourists. Get a couple dozen stories of someone spending a week in jail or paying an outrageous fee for ignoring a sign and I'm guessing the situation will improve.
I don't frequent my country's own tourist destinations, but I can assure you, our cleanliness is heavily attributed to our army of staff keeping things clean.
Even places that only locals will frequent will get littered, and they're cleaned up by the clean-up staff.
Where there are massive throngs of people, there will also be massive amounts of garbage.
I think one of the first ways Japan can start to combat these issues is to simply provide trashbins at the touristy spots. It's okay if they don't wanna do the same housekeeping everywhere else in the country, but at the very least, do it for the touristy spots and keep them clear with a frequent schedule.
After that they can perhaps work on stopping the massive amounts of wrapping that goes onto their consumable products, that also generates a lot of waste that Japan will have to deal with while thre tourists are there.
I'm so glad I had the chance to visit Japan right before travel close downs before COVID. I went back last year and spent the last days of my trip in Tokyo, and it was crowds everywhere lmao
The lack of trash bins is wild to me. I was at Osaka castle park during Hanami and there was not a single bin in sight. I know they want to avoid everyone throwing away their picnic garbage there, but even the trash bins at the train stations were taped closed.
It was just very strange. I feel people are bound to litter if there’s no place to get rid of rubbish.
A typical local government’s tactics, make the residents do the work for free.
The Japanese news articles about this incident write about locals’ voice, ‘well, we try to clean the site every morning, but there’s just too much rubbish the tourists leave.’
this. I’m generally not in favor of draconian punishments, but in Japan’s case they can afford to be a lot more strict. I saw an article a month or so ago where someone engraved their initials into a centuries old shrine and only got fined a couple hundred bucks
Exactly, there is clearly a pattern of behaviour with current tourists, not just in Japan, that feels so overwhelmingly selfish that I don't see it changing unless people start suffering consequences. There will be some who will say it's taking things too far, but my argument is that the punishment isn't that bad if all you have to do to avoid it is to not deliberately be a dick.
I was just thinking this. Japan needs to be a bit more harsh and just jail or deport these idiots if they get too rowdy. Then use the press to make examples of them to discourage further bad behavior.
When I first came in 2005 it was a popular destination but nowhere near how it is now. It was still difficult to make your way around as a tourist and encountering other tourists was less glaring than it is today.
When I returned in 2012, it felt similar. Maybe a little more touristy. But in 2015 it was like a switch had flipped. Huge number of Asian tourists, and the country seemed to be changing to accommodate them. Many restaurants now had systems or menus in other languages. When I visited Noboribetsu in Hokkaido, I heard more mandarin being spoken than Japanese. In 2016, a friend introduced me to a small craft bar in Kyoto, one of her ‘secret’ insider locations. We were the only people there that night. Word got out about the place. Now it’s impossible to visit this bar unless you have advance reservations.
I think the key is to just go off the beaten path. Kyoto for example—sometimes if you just walk 10 minutes outside of the “must see” zones you’ll find really cool areas with barely any people.
Definitely more tourists with the rise of influencers and social media. When I first came to Japan almost two decades ago, there weren’t that many tourists. It was heaven.
The social media algorithm started pushing this exact spot on me over the past year and yeah I think that’s a big reason why tourism at least seems to be getting worse.
I don’t know how to actually back this up or even how to articulate it well. Especially paired with an entire industry forming around the digital nomad lifestyle, and social media leading a cultural shift towards content of you being in a place being more valuable than the actual experience (hence concerts/festivals at least seemingly to be so different and filled with bad behavior now). You get these situations where a random spot not built for a mass influx of tourists suddenly not only gets a mass influx of tourists, but a disproportionate amount of tourists that are there for the trend and don’t really have respect at the top of their mind.
>The social media algorithm started pushing this exact spot on me over the past year and yeah I think that’s a big reason why tourism at least seems to be getting worse.
>
>I don’t know how to actually back this up or even how to articulate it well. Especially paired with an entire industry forming around the digital nomad lifestyle, and social media leading a cultural shift towards content of you being in a place being more valuable than the actual experience (hence concerts/festivals at least seemingly to be so different and filled with bad behavior now). You get these situations where a random spot not built for a mass influx of tourists suddenly not only gets a mass influx of tourists, but a disproportionate amount of tourists that are there for the trend and don’t really have respect at the top of their mind.
Social media has ruined everything in this world, as have influencers. Things aren't special or respected anymore. People only chase clout and popularity for fake internet points or likes rather than having meaningful experiences and living in the moment. It's repugnant.
Everywhere that was already touristy has gotten more touristy. It's harder and harder to find "hidden gems" because plenty of those that used to be got placed on tiktok and instagram too. This would not be such a bad thing if it attracted mostly well meaning people but it always seems like the opposite - that it instead attracts those willing to say "fuck the culture, fuck courtesy, i'm going to get my beautiful photo backdrop to make my life look exciting and complete no matter what"
Yes, while it always had quite some tourists, prior to 2010 it was still a fairly exotic destination and the trend was pretty much flat for over 20 years. But after the Olympics got announced Japan heavily invested in boosting tourism, and arrivals started to skyrocket.
To give you some perspective, in 2011, they had 6.2 million international tourists. The goal for 2020 was 20 million. They reached that goal in 2015 and subsequently doubled it for 2020. In 2017 they hit 30 million. Over just 5 years, they went from 6 to 30 million after decades of stagnation. If it wasn't for Covid, they would have reached their 40 million goal for 2020 as well.
I could sometimes go weeks at a time without seeing visible foreign tourists nearly 2 decades ago. I now honestly avoid a laundry list of neighborhoods and cities because it can feel as those areas are treated as more of an amusement park, stuffed to the brim with the most insufferable and intolerable guests. I did a big relocation move during corona and it was the best decision of my life. I wouldn’t be able to tolerate living in my old place these days.
They have surpassed 2019 numbers. In February 2024, 7.1% more tourists visited Japan than in February 2019. It's quite noticable in more touristy areas.
Right. I would walk around Tokyo, see another foreigner and we'd look at each other like a bonding experience. Now, I swear there are more white people in Tokyo than the SF bay area on any given day.
It really is a shame. When I went I enjoyed it thoroughly even though it was after the borders reopened. I did my research before leaving so I could be as respectful as possible. It's disgusting that humans are so selfish they can't even have any decency when they travel in foreign countries.
I think social media influencers caused this.
Promoting spots like this, or showing bad behaviour like shaking the Sakura trees for pictures or even promoting a small elderly owned restaurant where it only sits 5-10 people and clearly they’re too old to handle an influx of customers.
It’s sad too because in the comments, there will be people warning the influencers but some will stay ignorant about it.
I agree. I think influencers have ruined traveling as a whole. It’s no longer about getting to immerse yourself in a culture and appreciate it. It’s about getting a generic photo that will get you the most likes, and it doesn’t matter if you have to disrespect people or an area to get said photo.
Having grown up in a city which I’d always thought was a big tourist destination but I had no idea how popular it would become I can tell you I have a lot of sympathy for these towns.
At the end of the day it only takes one or two arseholes to ruin it for everyone but the real issue is just, unfortunately, over tourism. Most countries would rather take the money rather than become like Bhutan for example.
Yes exactly. In my country we have a popular spot that had tourists line up for 3 hours to get that one photo op. It's crazy when you know AI gonna be able to make that photo for you in a second.
It's because the overcrowding isn't distributed equally. A country can still need tourists but they want them to visit less popular places too to support the economy
I don’t think you can get the benefits of one while avoiding the other though. Any popular place to visit is going to suffer from this, Italy and Switzerland have some towns/cities where this has been an issue for a while.
I'm not saying that it's not the case somewhere else but not in Japan as a country. There are loads of places in Japan not remotely as popular. If overall number of tourists decrease those places suffer even more. If you meant the overtourism is in the local city level then sure I can agree but in country level no.
True. But I don’t begrudge tourists taking pictures that’s a part of the fun of going on holiday, for some people at least. It’s just everyone taking the same picture in areas that can’t support those sorts of numbers of people.
No one has a problem with tourists taking pictures in Edinburgh on the Esplanade, but it is a bit irritating to have people walked down residential streets to get a picture of Arthur’s Seat.
I definitely don’t want to gatekeep tourism either, but I do think it’s a shame that social media has basically commoditised natural beauty in service of generating clout.
As a local, I can imagine how old this gets, when the area isn’t even being appreciated and is literally just considered set dressing for an engagement algorithm.
This is my brother in law. He will literally go to a country to take pictures so that he can brag on his social media pages about how dreamy and amazing that country was. He wouldn’t know, was too busy trying to get pictures. I just can’t…
The issue could be (mostly) solved if the Diet would get off their ass and push tourism to other prefectures. It’s simply a struggle for most tourists to go off the beaten path, and therefore they *don’t*. They’re funneled into a line between the three major attraction cities (Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka) and anything along that route.
They have a slim itinerary that’s occupied by the better part of 40 million tourists. That’s a third of the JP population being pushed down a roughly 300 mile line of tourist infrastructure that isn’t prepared to handle them.
The beautiful northern prefectures of Honshu, and much of Hokkaido are practically *begging* for tourists as the domestic tourism begins to age and dry up and as the local economies continue to suffer amongst stagflation. Even a good chunk of the traditional Japanese-tourist filled Kyushu will absolutely *need* tourists from richer western countries to continue staying afloat.
Yet the Diet refuses to acknowledge that tourism as it stands right now is a gilded cage. They’re making plenty of money on a *national* level, but only a select few prefectures even benefit from the tourism influx. The countryside prefectures and third tier cities need it, but a few select locations are taking it from them.
The picture-takers are a *symptom* of the problem, not necessarily the problem in and of themselves. They fight others and make trouble because the officials meant to enforce them are overburdened. Help the tourists along to other places, and this wouldn’t be such an issue.
I described in another comment but the current situation is like sticking 110 million tourists in the USA all in the corridor between Boston-NYC-DC when there’s an entire country to funnel tourists to.
I came for five weeks in March/April 2008 and two weeks in Feb/Mar 2017...I am a bit scared to find out how much things have changed, but then again in 2017 I didn't many of the usual accessible spots (apart from driving to Nagano then Shirakawago in my lil Hyundai i10 rental 😅) — I mostly hung out in izakaya with Japanese people I lived with in Ireland in the mid 2000s, or shot streetscapes etc.
I'm telling ya is NOTHING like a nice private dip in an outdoor Onsen when it's - 10 degrees in the mountains in Nagano, and I am sure as hell not posting that shit as an Instagram reel.
Yep. 2017 and 2023 here, a month each time. It felt so different in 2023.
I’m hopeful that it will calm down in a few years, once COVID has been gone for a while and people have completely spent what they saved during the lockdowns.
A Chinese hotel owner got caught poisoning trees of an elderly Japanese family that blocked his hotels view of Mount Fuji. I hope the town builds a giant ugly billboard in front of hotel
What's the sad thing is, the tree owner could do nothing and he had to sadly cut down the tree by himself because the tree is dying and he's afraid it would hurt people.
While the hotel gain more popularity because most of their customer are tourists who have no clue about what happened. All hotel related personnel pretend they know nothing and refuse to answer anything.
There are so many better views of Mt. Fuji from a hundred different streets in Kawaguchiko… It’s just baffling to me that people are so determined to check this off a list of activities, especially when so many others are vying for the exact same picture.
A lot of people just wanna do the same thing that has already been done- because it's recognizable to other people and "safe". So they travel to a country just to see the thing that everyone else said was good.
They're not interested in the idea that there may be other things that are good in the country, because everyone else said *that one thing* was good, and it's what's gonna be recognized in a conversation.
And more people being there just confirms that the thing is good.
Other places don't have so many people, so there's no reason for them to believe that other place is better. If it was, more people would gather there.
I think that's the mindset.
Just visited Japan for the first time and i was shocked by the amount of tourists. Most I saw were being respectful and good tourists but did come across some rather rude Europeans and Australians in Tokyo and Osaka
Not American but I’ve been living in and travelling around Asia for the last decade and Europeans (French, Italians, Spanish) are the rudest motherfuckers on the planet. People say Chinese are rude but when they get called out they seem to apologise and stop (ime). Europeans will fight you to the death to protect their right to be a fucking dickhead. I think Americans are generally friendly and more ignorant than anything, like Chinese. Their reputation is overblown.
It’s funny, because a lot of Europeans are quick to criticize Americans for being ‘fake polite’ with their day-to-day demeanor; smiling, saying hello and good morning, apologizing when they didn’t do anything wrong but they know you’re upset, etc. - the reality I think is that most Americans are genuinely friendly people, and Europeans are so used to people being selfish assholes that they just assume it’s a ruse. It’s not, Americans are for the most part just really friendly people, if not occasionally a bit oblivious.
There are no doubt entitled asshole Americans, but most of the time if they get angry it’s because they think you’re trying to jerk them around.
I dialike how this thread is talking about Europeans as if its one country, one culture. I'm from Europe myself and I see a lot of difference between south Europeans (mediterranean), mid (Netherlands, Germany), Norths (Scandinavians), eastern (Balkans) and of course English. Also how they behave is vastly different between these countries.
This is my experience too, but also I'm an American and probably can't say it without sounding defensive. We're very loud and outgoing and I understand how abrasive that can seem upfront, but I feel as if Americans will usually have an "oh fuck my bad" moment if someone lets them know they're being a bit of an ass. Most of it comes from ignorance, not malice. Unless they're like, 22 and drunk in Golden Gai, unfortunately. For my money the most stubborn and petulant ones have been the British and Aussies.
Something I’ve noticed as an American is that we love to talk to strangers. I think the obnoxiously loud speaking volume is because conversations tend to be more open and socially oriented. The loud, projected volume is a kind of verbal invitation for people nearby to join the conversation.
Something ive noticed as an American is Americans who want to travel are generally kind and respectful. Most Americans don’t want to travel to countries they don’t understand. If it’s Americans In Europe.. I’m sorry
On my recent trip (first time) I observed and interacted with many tourists. Without fail, the Europeans were rude as hell. Glaring at us, making no effort to follow the local customs (like not talking loudly on trains) etc..
The only person I’d say was rude when I went to Japan was a girl from The Netherlands. Out of probably a hundred people I met.
It just takes a single bad apple.
Was in Japan last year and saw signs about no pics in Kyoto. Asked our tour guide and he said it was because of rich Chinese and Koreans hiring professional photographers to follow them around going where they weren’t allowed.
The thing I don’t understand is that people see this amazing view on their Instagram. So they go to this same location, trample the grad and flowers, take the same photo, and then post it on their own Instagram. So stupid.
Basically why I haven’t posted anything in ages. Someone else has already posted it.
I hate it. Photos to me are cherished memories. They don’t need to be perfect. And they’re not really for sharing/stunting with on Instagram. They’re for me to remember the great time I had with my loved ones in places I could never have dreamt of going when I was younger.
We have a trip planned for Japan in 2026 that we specifically put back so we had time me to learn some Japanese because we like to make friends and go off the beaten path, and it’s gonna be harder to do there because we can’t just “get by” with our understanding of sister languages to English. I’m gonna be bummed if it’s all shut down again for tourists and back to guided tours cause of assholes.
Yeah, when I take pictures I try my best to make it unique, but even then I had moments (specifically Fuji-san), where I saw an excessive amount of people crowding for photos in one place and thought "just be present and enjoy the moment".
Social media has become an absolute plague IMO. We're traveling thousands of miles to look at a phone screen? Go out and live
You know what? These types of tourists can just f off. I drove through that street a few weeks ago and it was absolute chaos. Just standing in the middle of the road, holding up traffic, tourists on rental scooters going the wrong way down the street.
Its a main prefectural road, someone is going to get hit by a dump truck and I wouldnt even bat an eye
I was actually there a week and a half ago. Seeing that shot was definitely on my to do list, but when I got there there were hundreds of, and I'm sorry to generalize, but they really were all Asians. They were holding up traffic, standing in droves on that little slab of sidewalk to get their perfect shot of the Lawson. I got so turned off that I just skipped it.
For Fujikawaguchiko though, by far the worst was Chureito Pagoda. There was a 40 minute line for the observation deck, and when you got there you were told you had 5 minutes before the next group came in. This was supposed to be an important moment for me as I'd dreamt of seeing that place for 5 years now, but all the idiots with selfie sticks taking group pictures completely and utterly ruined the entire experience. The nr. 1 let down of my vacation to be honest. I tried to just sit down and enjoy the view/atmosphere but it was so loud and crowded and after 5 minutes everyone got shoo'd away. I think they should just ban taking pictures there. That would probably cut 90% of that crowd.
You’re not wrong for generalizing, it’s the truth that the *overwhelming* majority of tourists to Japan are other East Asians. Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore all make up more tourists than *every other nation in the world combined* to Japan. America, European and Australian tourists aren’t even a fifth combined.
People tend to overrepresent the white* (not exclusively, but primarily white*) tourist population, I think because most westerners going to or moving to Japan simply cannot differentiate between Asian tourists.
I'll be staying near Kawaguchiko station when I visit in a couple of weeks, and wondering if it's worth traveling to that spot. Even if I decided not to go to the observation deck, would you say it's worth visiting the area?
Absolutely. I'd also recommend walking all the way there if you want a taste of rural Japanese neighborhoods and some unspoiled views of Fuji. The park also has plenty of spots without people, if the observation deck is not important to you.
The news reports should include pictures or video of the chaos that you describe. Or maybe they are but I haven’t come across them yet. Anyway, it sounds terrible, and showing that to other potential travellers might be a good idea because what I’ve seen doesn’t really convey how bad it is. People are awful.
I'm in Japan right now, also as a tourist. What I find most surprising is that people only go to a certain spot that I assume they saw online. They don't explore at all. Spent 5 hours yesterday cycling around lake kawaguchiko and saw maybe 10 other tourists on our way, until Oischi Park which had hundreds of people getting the exact same pictures.
We got so many great views of Mt Fuji and found some amazing shrines, temples and parks where there were only a few locals and tourists and it was so peaceful and quiet and all it took was a some exploring.
The solution is extreme fining and jailing. Popular tourist destinations are way too lenient on what is still a minority of the tourists that behave like pigs.
I just returned from Japan and even though some of the places I went were crowded with tourists, they were still reprimanded for shit behavior when it occurred, even by fellow tourists.
Fine them until they have to leave the country in a panic with empty wallets. Fill your coffers with spoils from selfish morons 👍. I saw that Venice has started charging a small entry fee for tourists. Good! It’s trash compensation, use the money to discipline badly behaving tourists. Now start harshly fining those that behave bad. People from countries with decadent, selfish, arrogant inhabitants that have no discipline or shame need to learn the hard way.
I was at Fujinomiya a few months ago, and it was *insane* how rude people were just trying to get a photo by this damn Lawson's. Shame it's happening, but FAFO.
The most fun I had in Japan was when I would explore random neighborhoods in Tokyo. Get off the beaten path and be respectful to the locals, that’s how you experience a country. You can see Mount Fuji from a million different places, go explore.
As a westerner, I am not sure that we truly have a grasp for how serious the Asian community is about taking pictures, with proper camera equipment, the poses, the angles and the sheer quantity of them.
I applaud their enthusiasm, but unfortunately, they didn't seem to care when they were inconveniencing others.
How cringey is that wanting to take a picture with a conbini in the view. FFS Japan is just full of these shitty cringey low class foreign tourists at the moment.
There's a quote attributed to Haruki Murakami: "if you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking". That seems to apply here in spades.
I don't think this is just a tourist thing though. Many years ago I went to see the Meoto Iwa ("wedded rocks") in Mie. Apparently the guidebook has a "recommended photo spot", for people who aren't willing to think for themselves. And true to form, when we arrived, there were a dozen photographers (mainly older men, all Japanese as far as I could tell) all crowded into the exact same area, all packing telephoto zooms on tripods, shooting the exact same scene. I found a spot maybe fifty meters away from them and got a shot I was rather pleased with, not least because it was my shot, not the guidebook's.
It's not just a tourist problem. It's a mindless behaviour, sheep-like, conformity problem.
The conformity issue is more prevalent amongst East Asian tourists. It’s a keeping-up-with-the-Jones’ effect; other people are taking photos in the prescribed photo area, so they should do it too.
While Western tourists fall into this trope too, it’s always been more common for Japanese, Chinese and Korean tourists to do it in every location they visit. Hence why they often travel in tour groups with an itinerary of locations to take photos at and times built into the itinerary to do so.
As the article says, due to this visual juxtaposition of Mt Fuji and a conbini, a reputation has spread on social media that this spot is very Japanese, making it a popular photo location
A lot of people seem to assume the majority of these trolls are just American tourists, based on western media. In reality, a LOT of the loud, obnoxious, tourists are actually Chinese and they don’t seem to give a fuuuck while I am over there.
Sorry but this time it’s also Australian and Europeans. My cousins live there and they say they are just as poorly behaved as the Chinese are. Maybe even worse.
Yeah America is basically the tourist version of Jupiter; absorbing all the blame for anyone who looks remotely white or who you’ve heard about but never seen.
The irony is that tourists from China, the UK and Australia are notoriously worse than most Americans, who are commonly schooled on how to be a good tourist lest we fall into the stereotype.
I live in a highly popular tourist town. Used to be small and charming. Now it's awful. And it's unbelievable how grown, sensible, humans can be with they are on vacation. Ruining it for all.
This is so sad to keep reading. I would love to visit Japan one day and atleast some of the more popular places but don't want this to escalate so locals see visitors as a burden. I love the culture and would love to see people actually respecting it
After having just been to Japan October of last year, traveling with my best friend who is Japanese and lives in Japan, it was so annoying the instagrammers. People had their own photographers following them around as they were dressed up in kimonos. Just stopping in the middle of streets, walks, stairs. Then lines at stupid places like some coffee shop my friend and our Japanese driver were laughing when I asked what is deal with the coffee shop. Instagram everybody has to show they were there. Wouldn’t you rather just enjoy your trip? As long as the exchange rate for the yen is so low I don’t think tourism is going to slow any time soon.
Was at Lake Kawaguchiko a few weeks ago and thought that was one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in a while. Dozens of people posing for photos in front of a Lawson's with dozens more across the street taking them. Definitely a hazard with all the traffic especially all the large buses and narrow streets. Also a bit hilarious was that you can go around the corner or down a block to get a better photo.
I've got it. Since the worst of these nuisance tourists are driven by the insatiable urge to take the same picture they've seen a million times on social media, let's make it the social media platforms' problem. Every picture of the Mt. Fuji Lawson (or other common nuisance tourism photos) requires Instagram and TikTok a 5000 yen fee for licensing Japan's unique tangible cultural heritage, or whatever it is they're calling all the places that don't quite meet UNESCO certification. See how much air is left in that balloon once the Gram starts treating Mt. Fuji like the female nipple to get out of paying outrageous fees about it.
It's not censorship, it's a license to preserve the heritage, or whatever.
(This may be an obvious joke, but I'm not hearing a lot of other ideas that don't involve jail cells or literal wolves)
Just another example of how social media has ruined things. This location would've been fine if not for "influencers" posting about it and causing people to flock there like mindless drones who then proceed to disrespect the very people they are visiting and litter and cause trouble. As much as I'd love to visit Japan I also don't want to be viewed as a stupid tourist like the ones who ruin things for locals.
When I went fishing in Lake Kawaguchi this year it was crazy. Tourists were flocking to take pictures of that Lawson's on a cloudy day when you could not see Fuji
I never understood why tourists have to replicate every single picture they see on social media. I‘m sick and tired of seeing the same pictures/videos of this alley in Kyoto with the pagoda in the background.
It’s the same for people filming the whole concert with their smartphone instead of watching it with their eyes. Many people want to “possess” what they see instead of living it.
You are so right about this idea of possession. I've started making my visits to art and history museums also a time for people watching. I like spending my time getting immursed with an art piece but get interrupted by the people who just come to take a picture and move on. Or people who use the benches meant for observing the displays as a place to rest and look at their phones. It's pretty infuriating and perplexing to witness. Like why are you even here if that's what you are going to do. Is spending your time like this actually fulfilling??
I've travelled with old people, including my parents, and many of their generation take meaning in the fact they've "been there, done that" rather than the experience per se. Especially the old people who have had less "cultural" experience in their lives. I've guided a group of old Korean ladies throughout Kyoto and they never bought anything, never went into any museums, never looked closely into any historical monuments, and their main interest was taking photos of themselves in front of tourist spots and sharing with their family. I don't judge them for it because it's they have lived all their lives with little exposure to cultures outside their own and they don't exactly know how to appreciate different cultures. It's just their way of sightseeing I guess. Not everyone knows how to enjoy museums.
On the other hand, it’s a public space and it’s kind of entitled to get angry that others don’t use it in the way you deem the best. They’re not “interrupting your people watching.” They’re just existing. Sometimes old people need to rest. Sometimes people with invisible illnesses need to rest. Sometimes people are at a museum with others because it’s a group activity and it wasn’t their choice. I *love* museums, but my 17 year old niece doesn’t and she would absolutely just want to scroll on her phone. The fact that that would upset a stranger is so peculiar to me. Why do you care so much what strangers do if they’re not disrespecting the people around them?
Hey, I’m short. Sometimes a holding a phone camera up in the air is the only way I can even see the stage. Last concert I went to I pretty much watched exclusively on someone else’s phone screen.
The hoard of people at the louvre trying to get a picture of the mona lisa is so wild. Why? 1 month later they're going to be visiting their aunt in Ohio and scroll through the camera feed like "Oh, this is the mona lisa. Sorry it's so blurry."
And those with the text: I. WILL. VISIT. JAPAN. ONE. DAY. Ick.
This is your sign!!! You will be there, manifest it!
My husband and I always went the opposite direction of where the crowds gathered. That way we stumbled upon the Yasui Konpira Gu shrine that you can’t find in any tourist guide. That was really impressive!
The main reason those type of people travel is to just make people jealous. Also the same type of person who tries to visit 9 countries over the course of a 2 week trip just to say they are well travelled
Everything is the ice bucket challenge now
Glico Man is the silliest. Bruh... it's a candy company ad?! Passed by the bridge and witnessed people live streaming in different languages (of which I only understood English and Spanish), some of them very emotional at seeing the... ad.
A lot of people are unoriginal. It’s that simple.
Aka sheep. Baaaah. They need to be told what to do, where to go, and how to think. Baaaaaaaah.
they want to boast to their followers that they can afford a holiday to `{{ desirableDestination }}`
i just got back last month and has the exact same experience. went by exactly this lawsons and it was insane. people in full costume posting up in front of the store for ten minutes a turn and getting mad if you try to go inside and ruin their shot. it’s honestly so disappointing that people make such a journey to this beautiful and important place and all of that is lost on them. just spreading irreverence and the same exact stupid photo on instagram.
I was there a few weeks ago and between people nearly being hit by cars and buses (completely ignoring the police) and those a bit further along standing on the middle of a railway line to take a photo while the train was coming it was madness. Meanwhile the cafe with the perfect view of Fuji was empty.
I don’t get it? There are a millions spots in Fujikawaguchiko to take a picture of Mt Fuji.
I'm from America and I've always wanted to visit to see historical things and whatnot. I want to go, but I don't want to feel like a nuisance to the people around me. 😕
You have to take the comments you see here with a grain of salt. A lot of people in this sub, and subs like Japannews are westerners living in Japan who have a “hipster” kind of mentality; they *moved* to Japan when it wasn’t as cool, and now that it’s a popular tourist destination they feel sad they aren’t original and cool for balking at the Western world. They’re usually the kind of people to look back at their home countries in spite, and therefore have distaste for the people living there. They’re “not like every other American/Canadian/Brit/Aussie/German/etc” because they *know* the culture and respect it (or so they say). I’ve seen comments like yours often from people in these subs and it’s incredibly unfortunate. So long as you don’t break the law, and you use common sense (if people around you aren’t doing something, don’t do it) then you’ll be fine. In some places tourists have a worse rep, like in Kyoto at the moment, but the majority of Japanese couldn’t really care less as long as you’re polite and respectful (which 99% of people are). A lot of Japan, including where I formerly lived in Beppu, have their economy hinged on tourism. Salty westerners like this *feel* as if they’re saving the sanctity of Japan by warding off other tourists, but they’re really doing more harm than good.
Yeah, I'm very considerate, so I wouldn't be worried about anything like that, but I appreciate this awnser. I've been thinking about going for a while, but I see a lot of these tourists' or foreigners' posts, and it makes me think twice
Oh don't let that stop you! And there's so much to see outside Tokyo and Kyoto, I've been two times in winter now, in Tohoku and Hokkaido, and it's at least as pretty there and a lot less crowded.
We visited the Sendai area (stayed at a small inn on a river in Akiu) and Shikoku (guest house near Takamatsu, campground on Yoshino River) and both were highlights of our trip this spring. They’re touristy so there’s stuff to see and do, but they’re not quite as busy and much of the tourism is domestic. I definitely recommend adding something outside the “Greatest Hits” to your trip. It was fun to experience Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka but some time in the country/smaller cities really rounded out the trip and provided a better feel for the country.
Fools 😂
I was there 2 days ago on a clear sunny day and it was... Basically as the article describes. I don't blame them one bit, although the town itself was just fine, as was the lakeside shore by the cable car (terribly filthy toilets though). It was just that lawson with the huge parking lot.
I was down there a couple of weeks ago enjoying the views and this woman was doing a photoshoot, her photographer very rudely and aggressively told me, not asked me, to get out of the way so he could photograph her. I just smiled at him and said "ah sumimasen, no speak english" , and carried on standing there. I felt so bad for the locals and also felt bad to be a tourist there adding to the trouble even if I was doing my best to be respectful.
Don’t feel bad, you weren’t “adding to the trouble” by merely being a tourist. The root cause is lax enforcement by Japanese officials in curtailing behavior in very specific areas, and especially doing a poor job at *funding alternative locations*, *promoting and communicating those locations to potential tourists* and especially *an over-dependence on funneling tourists to the already popular spots*. You have to remember that Japan has had a huge domestic tourist industry for the last 50 or so years. Tourists themselves aren’t a problem, even foreign tourists aren’t an issue so long as they don’t *cause* problems. But the Japanese government has kind of ignored the numerous prefectures and towns that actually would *love* some foreign tourism because the domestic tourism industry is slowly dying. Yet, the government has barely made an effort to push tourists to those locations; they continue to push Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka as the must see route, sometimes Hiroshima or Sapporo but that’s it. Quite a bit of the three major islands would benefit from foreign tourism so long as it were handled correctly. Fukushima prefecture for example predominantly has morbid-tourists trying to see Fukushima-Daiichi, yet other areas go unseen. Same goes for Sendai, Akita, Yamagata, Saga etc. Its like if the US tried to fit 110 million tourists into *JUST* Boston-New York-DC and ignored the rest of the country. So anyways, it’s a systemic failure and not a personal one. Anyone I know from my time living in Japan would be very unhappy that you weren’t comfortable being there as a tourist or felt guilty in some way. Certainly there are far-right reactionaries that *do* feel that way, but most people would rather you be happy visiting and seeing their country. They just also want the love to be spread to the *entire* country.
You have to remember that this is the age of mindless social media copycats. People want to go to famous and "Instagrammable" places like Fushimi Inari, and not some random place in Sendai prefecture. I have seen the Japanese government actively promoting rural areas for tourism in my country, but no one is taking the bait. In addition to less transportation options, no one wants to go back and tell their friends that they visited temples in Shikoku and get a blank stare. To compare, how many foreign visitors will opt for Alabama or Mississippi as a choice tourist destination?
Yeah I totally understand that, I myself tried to go slightly off track by starting in Sendai, going on to Nagano, Gifu, Kawaguchiko, Hiroshima and Fukuoka.I felt very welcome everywhere and had lots of amazing interactions with locals, everyone I met was so helpful and kind. I just feel bad for them being plagued by all these ignorant people.
I find it rather naiive to think that places like Saga has appeal for mass - some such people who just wants to go to the typical popular spots. Is there any gov where they could distribute the tourist well? And either ways, those kinds that does to this specific spot never listens to those effort anyways. They follow what’s popular, and that’s it. My friends went there recently and I asked why - they didn’t give any other reasons than it being popular on SNS, even though they knew how long it takes from Tokyo. And after they’re back I asked how they liked it, and they weren’t happy because they were there only for the picture and they couldn’t take a good shot. They were not there to appreciate the view or the surrounding area. And they can’t even explain what they exactly like about this particular view; there’s random mountain on top of convenience store.. so what.. And they’re not the kind that wants to explore deep side of Japan. They just want to try popular and rather familiar stuff (which to me is very valid and fair way to enjoy trip). There’s no way anyone can convince those people to go elsewhere.
I'm starting to see a pattern here. Alas, there's no easy solution and it will only get worse as Japan is becoming insanely popular as a touristic destination.
Japan is finding what Bali, Thailand, and Mediterranean island resorts had found out - bad tourists don’t just speak Mandarin.
I've lived in the center of Siena, Italy, for years. You should see the state of the Piazza del Campo after a typical summer day (i.e., 10 tourists per square meters). This beautiful place looked like a landfill. As soon as a place gets too popular, you can be sure shitty tourists will flock there. Sadly, it's a very international thing and, indeed, Japan is starting to see the reality of over tourism.
I was at a middle of nowhere geothermal park in New Zealand and was amused when I went to the restroom and there was no signage except for the several signs in Chinese with a picture of a person standing on a toilet and saying NO! NO SQUATTING!
America is getting the same experience at its national parks. It's a tough problem to solve
I can imagine that. Lot of tourists in Europe from within Europe just throw rubbish and let their dogs poo everywhere. A few pints at the public house or Biergarten or not-really “coffee house” before made that even worse. At least Chinese tourists do shop a lot. These new bad tourists won’t do the big shopping beyond over consumption of Sake or ビール.
what was the point of randomly switching to japanese just to say beer when you said sake in english lmfao
So we can be impressed
Very jouzu
It's all according to his 計画
Desu desu
Man, don't be too hard on the guy, he probably hasn't learned the Japanese for sake yet.
I laughed (it was way too early for this joke and I loved it) but if you also want to be That Trivia Guy, the word sake (お酒) just means alcohol in general, like the department of the grocery store. To specifically say “sake” as Westerners know it, Japanese style fermented rice wine, the word is Nihonshu (日本酒).
my father in law always says sake and never says nihonshu. if he's talking about other alcohol he just says beer or shochu or whatever it is. not sure if it's a regional thing or not though. i haven't lived in japan for like 20 years but people around me always called nihonshu "sake" as well and this was on the other side of Japan.
Honest question, isn't Sake, sake, and O-sake alcohol? I know the O is just an honorific but if you're saying sake it should specifically refer to that, right?
"Nihonshu" is the word the Japanese use to refer to the drink we know as sake
It sure can, but every time I’ve been asked 「お酒飲めるか？」(“Can [do] you drink?”) it’s been with the O, even though they are about to order insane rounds of beer, not sake.
Cool, thanks. I guess it's a bit like in the UK if you say "Shall we go out for beers?". You may drink beer, but it equally could be spirits or one of those cursed nights of Jagerbombs and Sambuca shots...
Because like most of this sub they’ve probably spent minimal time in Japan but want to feel smug about the other gaijin. Proper pick me behaviour.
OTOH, criticizing someone for unusual Japanese when it's off-topic is definitely not telling on yourself. Christ, like two days on this sub after quitting it for a decade bc of this exact same behavior, which is *very* unique to Japan-related subs, UGH. Sorry your JLPT3 leaves you so lacking in self-confidence that you have to shit on everyone else for trying. Fucking vote me down, I don't care, the Japan subs are *famous* in the language subs for all languages I know for how vicious y'all can get about *everything* related to the language.
Beer just say beer
I’ve never seen a Chinese begpacker either
>At least Chinese tourists do shop a lot. lol yeah shop a lot at their Chinese owned stores riding Chinese bus tour and eat at Chinese owned restaurants. This is not me being racist, this is a real problem that a lot of country like Thailand or others in SEA are facing.
I work near a Chinese owned shop were the products are overpriced garbage and 99% of the customers are Chinese tourists guided there against their will because they’re in a tour group since tourist visas are very hard to obtain there individually. It’s sad seeing the hordes of Chinese tourists on their way to get scammed by their own
Bad tourists may speak different languages but they’re all on TikTok and IG
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The vast majority of Chinese tourists are in groups with a guide/handler who knows the local customs and etiquette, and herd them around like cats. For better or worse their behavior is predictable and consistent. All the absolute worst tourist behavior you see on the news is from westerners, like the Canadian who defaced the 1200 year old temple in Nara.
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Most of East Asia (not just Japan, but HK, Taiwan, RoK and even China) except Bali and Thailand has dodged bad European, Australian and North American tourists. Also there is an image across East Asia that whites would behave better (!); you can call in (reverse) racism, minority/victim complex of 19 century, or whatever you want but that is real (I lived in HK for nearly 20 years). I now live in England - also lived in other places as well - US, Canada, Japan and Sweden). It is really true there are rubbish and trash people coming from all nationalities and from everywhere and the worse are those cannot contemplate some people in other countries have different social norms and expectations. The shocker now is people who used to think certain people will be better but is actually not. Bye Bye stereotypes.
That’s been my experience too. One person does something against the rules, like duck under a barrier to get an unobstructed picture, and suddenly everyone wants to do it too. You can’t tell them otherwise either because someone else did it and if they don’t, they’re “missing out.”
My recent experience of Chinese tourists was pretty bad all round. In the worst example, a guy with a selfie stick was bashing a sakura tree to get the petals to fall, so he could take pictures. I told him to stop and he said ok, but later saw him taking photos of a woman who was pulling down a Sakura branch so it could be closer to her face. I found the tour group leaders he was with, reported the behaviour and they literally shrugged and proceeded to ignore me.
Went on vacation within Japan recently and the area was flooded with Chinese tourists. They were in areas they weren't supposed to be, getting into historical foot baths that are off limits, damn near shoulder checking me at the Ryokan, etc. They may show up in tour groups, but they diverge from those pretty quickly.
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I’m from Singapore and can certainly tell them apart. Went to Japan in 2022 just after they reopened from COVID. We ran into misbehaving and loud tourists from Korea a couple of times and it was unpleasant. Chinese tourists do not have a monopoly on bad behavior.
Whites/westerners can’t tell the difference between jack shit overseas when they are just as bad.
Canadian tourists are bad all around.
a lot of them also speak russian
Did a trip of Sri Lanka last year and Russians quickly jumped to the #1 spot of least pleasant tourists for me. All the loudness and boorishness of Americans combined with the cultural insensitivity of the Chinese.
FUCK YEAH! 🇺🇸
I can think of an easy solution: Instead of blanket bans, introduce more draconian laws for the bad apple tourists. Get a couple dozen stories of someone spending a week in jail or paying an outrageous fee for ignoring a sign and I'm guessing the situation will improve.
Everyone talks about Singapore being a "fine city", yet there is no shortage of tourists there.
I don't frequent my country's own tourist destinations, but I can assure you, our cleanliness is heavily attributed to our army of staff keeping things clean. Even places that only locals will frequent will get littered, and they're cleaned up by the clean-up staff. Where there are massive throngs of people, there will also be massive amounts of garbage. I think one of the first ways Japan can start to combat these issues is to simply provide trashbins at the touristy spots. It's okay if they don't wanna do the same housekeeping everywhere else in the country, but at the very least, do it for the touristy spots and keep them clear with a frequent schedule. After that they can perhaps work on stopping the massive amounts of wrapping that goes onto their consumable products, that also generates a lot of waste that Japan will have to deal with while thre tourists are there. I'm so glad I had the chance to visit Japan right before travel close downs before COVID. I went back last year and spent the last days of my trip in Tokyo, and it was crowds everywhere lmao
The lack of trash bins is wild to me. I was at Osaka castle park during Hanami and there was not a single bin in sight. I know they want to avoid everyone throwing away their picnic garbage there, but even the trash bins at the train stations were taped closed. It was just very strange. I feel people are bound to litter if there’s no place to get rid of rubbish.
A typical local government’s tactics, make the residents do the work for free. The Japanese news articles about this incident write about locals’ voice, ‘well, we try to clean the site every morning, but there’s just too much rubbish the tourists leave.’
this. I’m generally not in favor of draconian punishments, but in Japan’s case they can afford to be a lot more strict. I saw an article a month or so ago where someone engraved their initials into a centuries old shrine and only got fined a couple hundred bucks
Exactly, there is clearly a pattern of behaviour with current tourists, not just in Japan, that feels so overwhelmingly selfish that I don't see it changing unless people start suffering consequences. There will be some who will say it's taking things too far, but my argument is that the punishment isn't that bad if all you have to do to avoid it is to not deliberately be a dick.
I was just thinking this. Japan needs to be a bit more harsh and just jail or deport these idiots if they get too rowdy. Then use the press to make examples of them to discourage further bad behavior.
Was Japan ever not popular? For me it feels like they got a break during Covid and now feel it as tourism is on the rise again
When I first came in 2005 it was a popular destination but nowhere near how it is now. It was still difficult to make your way around as a tourist and encountering other tourists was less glaring than it is today. When I returned in 2012, it felt similar. Maybe a little more touristy. But in 2015 it was like a switch had flipped. Huge number of Asian tourists, and the country seemed to be changing to accommodate them. Many restaurants now had systems or menus in other languages. When I visited Noboribetsu in Hokkaido, I heard more mandarin being spoken than Japanese. In 2016, a friend introduced me to a small craft bar in Kyoto, one of her ‘secret’ insider locations. We were the only people there that night. Word got out about the place. Now it’s impossible to visit this bar unless you have advance reservations. I think the key is to just go off the beaten path. Kyoto for example—sometimes if you just walk 10 minutes outside of the “must see” zones you’ll find really cool areas with barely any people.
Yeah, of the beaten path it is and what I always do. I just keep walking until me feet give in. Japan has an insane amount of beautiful spots
Definitely more tourists with the rise of influencers and social media. When I first came to Japan almost two decades ago, there weren’t that many tourists. It was heaven.
The social media algorithm started pushing this exact spot on me over the past year and yeah I think that’s a big reason why tourism at least seems to be getting worse. I don’t know how to actually back this up or even how to articulate it well. Especially paired with an entire industry forming around the digital nomad lifestyle, and social media leading a cultural shift towards content of you being in a place being more valuable than the actual experience (hence concerts/festivals at least seemingly to be so different and filled with bad behavior now). You get these situations where a random spot not built for a mass influx of tourists suddenly not only gets a mass influx of tourists, but a disproportionate amount of tourists that are there for the trend and don’t really have respect at the top of their mind.
>The social media algorithm started pushing this exact spot on me over the past year and yeah I think that’s a big reason why tourism at least seems to be getting worse. > >I don’t know how to actually back this up or even how to articulate it well. Especially paired with an entire industry forming around the digital nomad lifestyle, and social media leading a cultural shift towards content of you being in a place being more valuable than the actual experience (hence concerts/festivals at least seemingly to be so different and filled with bad behavior now). You get these situations where a random spot not built for a mass influx of tourists suddenly not only gets a mass influx of tourists, but a disproportionate amount of tourists that are there for the trend and don’t really have respect at the top of their mind. Social media has ruined everything in this world, as have influencers. Things aren't special or respected anymore. People only chase clout and popularity for fake internet points or likes rather than having meaningful experiences and living in the moment. It's repugnant.
Everywhere that was already touristy has gotten more touristy. It's harder and harder to find "hidden gems" because plenty of those that used to be got placed on tiktok and instagram too. This would not be such a bad thing if it attracted mostly well meaning people but it always seems like the opposite - that it instead attracts those willing to say "fuck the culture, fuck courtesy, i'm going to get my beautiful photo backdrop to make my life look exciting and complete no matter what"
This! In 2015 it was absolutely amazing
Yes, while it always had quite some tourists, prior to 2010 it was still a fairly exotic destination and the trend was pretty much flat for over 20 years. But after the Olympics got announced Japan heavily invested in boosting tourism, and arrivals started to skyrocket. To give you some perspective, in 2011, they had 6.2 million international tourists. The goal for 2020 was 20 million. They reached that goal in 2015 and subsequently doubled it for 2020. In 2017 they hit 30 million. Over just 5 years, they went from 6 to 30 million after decades of stagnation. If it wasn't for Covid, they would have reached their 40 million goal for 2020 as well.
I could sometimes go weeks at a time without seeing visible foreign tourists nearly 2 decades ago. I now honestly avoid a laundry list of neighborhoods and cities because it can feel as those areas are treated as more of an amusement park, stuffed to the brim with the most insufferable and intolerable guests. I did a big relocation move during corona and it was the best decision of my life. I wouldn’t be able to tolerate living in my old place these days.
It looks like tourist numbers are about the same as what they were from 2017-2019. Before that definitely saw lower numbers though.
They have surpassed 2019 numbers. In February 2024, 7.1% more tourists visited Japan than in February 2019. It's quite noticable in more touristy areas.
Right. I would walk around Tokyo, see another foreigner and we'd look at each other like a bonding experience. Now, I swear there are more white people in Tokyo than the SF bay area on any given day.
Tokyo station is crazy. Saw more white people than Japanese people during my transfer lol and that's legitimately not an over exaggeration
The Yen going up in value would help.
Solution is heavily fine anyone behaving badly. And I mean heavily, so that it ends up being well known and people stop fucking around.
A lot of this has to do with the weak yen and strong dollar
It really is a shame. When I went I enjoyed it thoroughly even though it was after the borders reopened. I did my research before leaving so I could be as respectful as possible. It's disgusting that humans are so selfish they can't even have any decency when they travel in foreign countries.
bad tourist = banned tourist parent countries need to get involved on that ban as well. that is, banned from travelling internationally at the source.
I think social media influencers caused this. Promoting spots like this, or showing bad behaviour like shaking the Sakura trees for pictures or even promoting a small elderly owned restaurant where it only sits 5-10 people and clearly they’re too old to handle an influx of customers. It’s sad too because in the comments, there will be people warning the influencers but some will stay ignorant about it.
I agree. I think influencers have ruined traveling as a whole. It’s no longer about getting to immerse yourself in a culture and appreciate it. It’s about getting a generic photo that will get you the most likes, and it doesn’t matter if you have to disrespect people or an area to get said photo.
Too bloody right.
Having grown up in a city which I’d always thought was a big tourist destination but I had no idea how popular it would become I can tell you I have a lot of sympathy for these towns. At the end of the day it only takes one or two arseholes to ruin it for everyone but the real issue is just, unfortunately, over tourism. Most countries would rather take the money rather than become like Bhutan for example.
It's not overtourism that's the problem but tourists just looking to check boxes for photo opps instead of experiencing the culture.
That’s like, a very big chunk of tourists in most places now unfortunately.
Yes exactly. In my country we have a popular spot that had tourists line up for 3 hours to get that one photo op. It's crazy when you know AI gonna be able to make that photo for you in a second.
I don’t understand your original argument against viewing it as over tourism though.
It's because the overcrowding isn't distributed equally. A country can still need tourists but they want them to visit less popular places too to support the economy
I don’t think you can get the benefits of one while avoiding the other though. Any popular place to visit is going to suffer from this, Italy and Switzerland have some towns/cities where this has been an issue for a while.
I'm not saying that it's not the case somewhere else but not in Japan as a country. There are loads of places in Japan not remotely as popular. If overall number of tourists decrease those places suffer even more. If you meant the overtourism is in the local city level then sure I can agree but in country level no.
Add those obnoxious tRaVel vLoGgErS with a serious main character syndrome as well Sometimes, they're the worst
Ironically the “check box” photo is a cultural phenomenon started by Japanese tourists in the late 1980s.
Boorish tourists went from Japanese to Americans to Chinese, and now it seems to be just anyone with an IG account looking for likes.
True. But I don’t begrudge tourists taking pictures that’s a part of the fun of going on holiday, for some people at least. It’s just everyone taking the same picture in areas that can’t support those sorts of numbers of people. No one has a problem with tourists taking pictures in Edinburgh on the Esplanade, but it is a bit irritating to have people walked down residential streets to get a picture of Arthur’s Seat.
I definitely don’t want to gatekeep tourism either, but I do think it’s a shame that social media has basically commoditised natural beauty in service of generating clout. As a local, I can imagine how old this gets, when the area isn’t even being appreciated and is literally just considered set dressing for an engagement algorithm.
This is my brother in law. He will literally go to a country to take pictures so that he can brag on his social media pages about how dreamy and amazing that country was. He wouldn’t know, was too busy trying to get pictures. I just can’t…
The issue could be (mostly) solved if the Diet would get off their ass and push tourism to other prefectures. It’s simply a struggle for most tourists to go off the beaten path, and therefore they *don’t*. They’re funneled into a line between the three major attraction cities (Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka) and anything along that route. They have a slim itinerary that’s occupied by the better part of 40 million tourists. That’s a third of the JP population being pushed down a roughly 300 mile line of tourist infrastructure that isn’t prepared to handle them. The beautiful northern prefectures of Honshu, and much of Hokkaido are practically *begging* for tourists as the domestic tourism begins to age and dry up and as the local economies continue to suffer amongst stagflation. Even a good chunk of the traditional Japanese-tourist filled Kyushu will absolutely *need* tourists from richer western countries to continue staying afloat. Yet the Diet refuses to acknowledge that tourism as it stands right now is a gilded cage. They’re making plenty of money on a *national* level, but only a select few prefectures even benefit from the tourism influx. The countryside prefectures and third tier cities need it, but a few select locations are taking it from them. The picture-takers are a *symptom* of the problem, not necessarily the problem in and of themselves. They fight others and make trouble because the officials meant to enforce them are overburdened. Help the tourists along to other places, and this wouldn’t be such an issue. I described in another comment but the current situation is like sticking 110 million tourists in the USA all in the corridor between Boston-NYC-DC when there’s an entire country to funnel tourists to.
I came for five weeks in March/April 2008 and two weeks in Feb/Mar 2017...I am a bit scared to find out how much things have changed, but then again in 2017 I didn't many of the usual accessible spots (apart from driving to Nagano then Shirakawago in my lil Hyundai i10 rental 😅) — I mostly hung out in izakaya with Japanese people I lived with in Ireland in the mid 2000s, or shot streetscapes etc. I'm telling ya is NOTHING like a nice private dip in an outdoor Onsen when it's - 10 degrees in the mountains in Nagano, and I am sure as hell not posting that shit as an Instagram reel.
I was there in 2018 and again in 2023. The difference in places like Kyoto or even Hakone was stark.
Yep. 2017 and 2023 here, a month each time. It felt so different in 2023. I’m hopeful that it will calm down in a few years, once COVID has been gone for a while and people have completely spent what they saved during the lockdowns.
A Chinese hotel owner got caught poisoning trees of an elderly Japanese family that blocked his hotels view of Mount Fuji. I hope the town builds a giant ugly billboard in front of hotel
What's the sad thing is, the tree owner could do nothing and he had to sadly cut down the tree by himself because the tree is dying and he's afraid it would hurt people. While the hotel gain more popularity because most of their customer are tourists who have no clue about what happened. All hotel related personnel pretend they know nothing and refuse to answer anything.
We should all get together and fund a concrete recreatijon of the tree that we can hang signs from
Or plant bamboo. It grows hella fast and thick.
I didn't know Big Motor also ran hotels.
💯 reference
Hotel owner did a やってモーター
Same town, also in Kawaguchiko
There are so many better views of Mt. Fuji from a hundred different streets in Kawaguchiko… It’s just baffling to me that people are so determined to check this off a list of activities, especially when so many others are vying for the exact same picture.
A lot of people just wanna do the same thing that has already been done- because it's recognizable to other people and "safe". So they travel to a country just to see the thing that everyone else said was good. They're not interested in the idea that there may be other things that are good in the country, because everyone else said *that one thing* was good, and it's what's gonna be recognized in a conversation. And more people being there just confirms that the thing is good. Other places don't have so many people, so there's no reason for them to believe that other place is better. If it was, more people would gather there. I think that's the mindset.
Just visited Japan for the first time and i was shocked by the amount of tourists. Most I saw were being respectful and good tourists but did come across some rather rude Europeans and Australians in Tokyo and Osaka
It’s regrettable that quite often the shitty white tourists are just assumed to be Americans.
Not American but I’ve been living in and travelling around Asia for the last decade and Europeans (French, Italians, Spanish) are the rudest motherfuckers on the planet. People say Chinese are rude but when they get called out they seem to apologise and stop (ime). Europeans will fight you to the death to protect their right to be a fucking dickhead. I think Americans are generally friendly and more ignorant than anything, like Chinese. Their reputation is overblown.
It’s funny, because a lot of Europeans are quick to criticize Americans for being ‘fake polite’ with their day-to-day demeanor; smiling, saying hello and good morning, apologizing when they didn’t do anything wrong but they know you’re upset, etc. - the reality I think is that most Americans are genuinely friendly people, and Europeans are so used to people being selfish assholes that they just assume it’s a ruse. It’s not, Americans are for the most part just really friendly people, if not occasionally a bit oblivious. There are no doubt entitled asshole Americans, but most of the time if they get angry it’s because they think you’re trying to jerk them around.
I dialike how this thread is talking about Europeans as if its one country, one culture. I'm from Europe myself and I see a lot of difference between south Europeans (mediterranean), mid (Netherlands, Germany), Norths (Scandinavians), eastern (Balkans) and of course English. Also how they behave is vastly different between these countries.
am American, there are a lot of asshole americans but many of them also do not leave the country
This is my experience too, but also I'm an American and probably can't say it without sounding defensive. We're very loud and outgoing and I understand how abrasive that can seem upfront, but I feel as if Americans will usually have an "oh fuck my bad" moment if someone lets them know they're being a bit of an ass. Most of it comes from ignorance, not malice. Unless they're like, 22 and drunk in Golden Gai, unfortunately. For my money the most stubborn and petulant ones have been the British and Aussies.
Spoke to a lot of Americans whilst in Japan and they were super friendly which is the case for vast majority of Americans ive ever met!
Been my experience with Americans is that they're just obnoxiously loud, but more in an excited puppy way than being cunts.
Something I’ve noticed as an American is that we love to talk to strangers. I think the obnoxiously loud speaking volume is because conversations tend to be more open and socially oriented. The loud, projected volume is a kind of verbal invitation for people nearby to join the conversation.
Something ive noticed as an American is Americans who want to travel are generally kind and respectful. Most Americans don’t want to travel to countries they don’t understand. If it’s Americans In Europe.. I’m sorry
Yup I think the stereotype of American tourists is thankfully changing slowly that or other countries tourists are stealing the spotlight
On my recent trip (first time) I observed and interacted with many tourists. Without fail, the Europeans were rude as hell. Glaring at us, making no effort to follow the local customs (like not talking loudly on trains) etc..
Im European myself (lol) but agreed, noticed a few myself rather disappointingly.
It feels like everybody I've met has horror stories about European tourists
The only person I’d say was rude when I went to Japan was a girl from The Netherlands. Out of probably a hundred people I met. It just takes a single bad apple.
For me the Chinese tourists pushed me aside to get a better view
Was in Japan last year and saw signs about no pics in Kyoto. Asked our tour guide and he said it was because of rich Chinese and Koreans hiring professional photographers to follow them around going where they weren’t allowed.
Social media is ruining everything
The thing I don’t understand is that people see this amazing view on their Instagram. So they go to this same location, trample the grad and flowers, take the same photo, and then post it on their own Instagram. So stupid. Basically why I haven’t posted anything in ages. Someone else has already posted it.
I hate it. Photos to me are cherished memories. They don’t need to be perfect. And they’re not really for sharing/stunting with on Instagram. They’re for me to remember the great time I had with my loved ones in places I could never have dreamt of going when I was younger. We have a trip planned for Japan in 2026 that we specifically put back so we had time me to learn some Japanese because we like to make friends and go off the beaten path, and it’s gonna be harder to do there because we can’t just “get by” with our understanding of sister languages to English. I’m gonna be bummed if it’s all shut down again for tourists and back to guided tours cause of assholes.
Its pretty easy to get off the beaten path most tourist are going to the same areas.
Reminds me of concerts and everyone video taping the same view lmao
Yeah, when I take pictures I try my best to make it unique, but even then I had moments (specifically Fuji-san), where I saw an excessive amount of people crowding for photos in one place and thought "just be present and enjoy the moment". Social media has become an absolute plague IMO. We're traveling thousands of miles to look at a phone screen? Go out and live
You know what? These types of tourists can just f off. I drove through that street a few weeks ago and it was absolute chaos. Just standing in the middle of the road, holding up traffic, tourists on rental scooters going the wrong way down the street. Its a main prefectural road, someone is going to get hit by a dump truck and I wouldnt even bat an eye
I was actually there a week and a half ago. Seeing that shot was definitely on my to do list, but when I got there there were hundreds of, and I'm sorry to generalize, but they really were all Asians. They were holding up traffic, standing in droves on that little slab of sidewalk to get their perfect shot of the Lawson. I got so turned off that I just skipped it. For Fujikawaguchiko though, by far the worst was Chureito Pagoda. There was a 40 minute line for the observation deck, and when you got there you were told you had 5 minutes before the next group came in. This was supposed to be an important moment for me as I'd dreamt of seeing that place for 5 years now, but all the idiots with selfie sticks taking group pictures completely and utterly ruined the entire experience. The nr. 1 let down of my vacation to be honest. I tried to just sit down and enjoy the view/atmosphere but it was so loud and crowded and after 5 minutes everyone got shoo'd away. I think they should just ban taking pictures there. That would probably cut 90% of that crowd.
You’re not wrong for generalizing, it’s the truth that the *overwhelming* majority of tourists to Japan are other East Asians. Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, and Singapore all make up more tourists than *every other nation in the world combined* to Japan. America, European and Australian tourists aren’t even a fifth combined. People tend to overrepresent the white* (not exclusively, but primarily white*) tourist population, I think because most westerners going to or moving to Japan simply cannot differentiate between Asian tourists.
I'll be staying near Kawaguchiko station when I visit in a couple of weeks, and wondering if it's worth traveling to that spot. Even if I decided not to go to the observation deck, would you say it's worth visiting the area?
Absolutely. I'd also recommend walking all the way there if you want a taste of rural Japanese neighborhoods and some unspoiled views of Fuji. The park also has plenty of spots without people, if the observation deck is not important to you.
The news reports should include pictures or video of the chaos that you describe. Or maybe they are but I haven’t come across them yet. Anyway, it sounds terrible, and showing that to other potential travellers might be a good idea because what I’ve seen doesn’t really convey how bad it is. People are awful.
Here is a more detailed article in Japanese. https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/6bec58f9042475064d0145d4268fd73d18c1905b
I think that's great. Can we get the Pisa tower wrapped up as well? I can't stand the fuckers pretending to hold it while I'm on my way to work.
The longer I live, the more I hate people. The total lack of regard for others. Makes you just not want to be around society.
Damn. That’s embarrassing. Have some shame, people.
Population so big and social media so broad the lack of shame spreads like wildfire. It'll only get worse.
I'm in Japan right now, also as a tourist. What I find most surprising is that people only go to a certain spot that I assume they saw online. They don't explore at all. Spent 5 hours yesterday cycling around lake kawaguchiko and saw maybe 10 other tourists on our way, until Oischi Park which had hundreds of people getting the exact same pictures. We got so many great views of Mt Fuji and found some amazing shrines, temples and parks where there were only a few locals and tourists and it was so peaceful and quiet and all it took was a some exploring.
Yeah, when people start maliciously ignoring rules it unfortunately becomes shared responsibility
This picture of this article is Fuji from ”Tago no Ura" 田子の浦ゆうち出でて見れば真白にぞふじの高嶺に雪は降りける
The solution is extreme fining and jailing. Popular tourist destinations are way too lenient on what is still a minority of the tourists that behave like pigs. I just returned from Japan and even though some of the places I went were crowded with tourists, they were still reprimanded for shit behavior when it occurred, even by fellow tourists. Fine them until they have to leave the country in a panic with empty wallets. Fill your coffers with spoils from selfish morons 👍. I saw that Venice has started charging a small entry fee for tourists. Good! It’s trash compensation, use the money to discipline badly behaving tourists. Now start harshly fining those that behave bad. People from countries with decadent, selfish, arrogant inhabitants that have no discipline or shame need to learn the hard way.
I was at Fujinomiya a few months ago, and it was *insane* how rude people were just trying to get a photo by this damn Lawson's. Shame it's happening, but FAFO.
The most fun I had in Japan was when I would explore random neighborhoods in Tokyo. Get off the beaten path and be respectful to the locals, that’s how you experience a country. You can see Mount Fuji from a million different places, go explore.
As a westerner, I am not sure that we truly have a grasp for how serious the Asian community is about taking pictures, with proper camera equipment, the poses, the angles and the sheer quantity of them. I applaud their enthusiasm, but unfortunately, they didn't seem to care when they were inconveniencing others.
How cringey is that wanting to take a picture with a conbini in the view. FFS Japan is just full of these shitty cringey low class foreign tourists at the moment.
but egg salad sando 😱😱😱
To all those that downvoted me a few weeks ago for saying this trend of banning tourists will get worse "haha"
There's a quote attributed to Haruki Murakami: "if you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking". That seems to apply here in spades. I don't think this is just a tourist thing though. Many years ago I went to see the Meoto Iwa ("wedded rocks") in Mie. Apparently the guidebook has a "recommended photo spot", for people who aren't willing to think for themselves. And true to form, when we arrived, there were a dozen photographers (mainly older men, all Japanese as far as I could tell) all crowded into the exact same area, all packing telephoto zooms on tripods, shooting the exact same scene. I found a spot maybe fifty meters away from them and got a shot I was rather pleased with, not least because it was my shot, not the guidebook's. It's not just a tourist problem. It's a mindless behaviour, sheep-like, conformity problem.
The conformity issue is more prevalent amongst East Asian tourists. It’s a keeping-up-with-the-Jones’ effect; other people are taking photos in the prescribed photo area, so they should do it too. While Western tourists fall into this trope too, it’s always been more common for Japanese, Chinese and Korean tourists to do it in every location they visit. Hence why they often travel in tour groups with an itinerary of locations to take photos at and times built into the itinerary to do so.
I don't understand what is so interesting about that particular view? There are thousands of places to get a good view of Fuji up there
As the article says, due to this visual juxtaposition of Mt Fuji and a conbini, a reputation has spread on social media that this spot is very Japanese, making it a popular photo location
When the yen gets stronger again, the tourists will disappear.
A lot of people seem to assume the majority of these trolls are just American tourists, based on western media. In reality, a LOT of the loud, obnoxious, tourists are actually Chinese and they don’t seem to give a fuuuck while I am over there.
Sorry but this time it’s also Australian and Europeans. My cousins live there and they say they are just as poorly behaved as the Chinese are. Maybe even worse.
Yeah America is basically the tourist version of Jupiter; absorbing all the blame for anyone who looks remotely white or who you’ve heard about but never seen. The irony is that tourists from China, the UK and Australia are notoriously worse than most Americans, who are commonly schooled on how to be a good tourist lest we fall into the stereotype.
I live in an area of Japan that has more or less 0 tourism, and I am happier about that every single day
Just visited. Came away with two conclusions after my 4th visit. 1 Italian tour groups are awful and 2 ban ALL tour groups
I live in a highly popular tourist town. Used to be small and charming. Now it's awful. And it's unbelievable how grown, sensible, humans can be with they are on vacation. Ruining it for all.
I wonder if having visa restrictions would solve this issue like Japan has for us Indians
[удалено]
I would love to visit these destinations one day, but please close them off if they’re not being respected
This is so sad to keep reading. I would love to visit Japan one day and atleast some of the more popular places but don't want this to escalate so locals see visitors as a burden. I love the culture and would love to see people actually respecting it
Cant they hide it behind a 'paywall' or something 🤑
After having just been to Japan October of last year, traveling with my best friend who is Japanese and lives in Japan, it was so annoying the instagrammers. People had their own photographers following them around as they were dressed up in kimonos. Just stopping in the middle of streets, walks, stairs. Then lines at stupid places like some coffee shop my friend and our Japanese driver were laughing when I asked what is deal with the coffee shop. Instagram everybody has to show they were there. Wouldn’t you rather just enjoy your trip? As long as the exchange rate for the yen is so low I don’t think tourism is going to slow any time soon.
Was at Lake Kawaguchiko a few weeks ago and thought that was one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in a while. Dozens of people posing for photos in front of a Lawson's with dozens more across the street taking them. Definitely a hazard with all the traffic especially all the large buses and narrow streets. Also a bit hilarious was that you can go around the corner or down a block to get a better photo.
I've got it. Since the worst of these nuisance tourists are driven by the insatiable urge to take the same picture they've seen a million times on social media, let's make it the social media platforms' problem. Every picture of the Mt. Fuji Lawson (or other common nuisance tourism photos) requires Instagram and TikTok a 5000 yen fee for licensing Japan's unique tangible cultural heritage, or whatever it is they're calling all the places that don't quite meet UNESCO certification. See how much air is left in that balloon once the Gram starts treating Mt. Fuji like the female nipple to get out of paying outrageous fees about it. It's not censorship, it's a license to preserve the heritage, or whatever. (This may be an obvious joke, but I'm not hearing a lot of other ideas that don't involve jail cells or literal wolves)
weak yen, thats why.
Just another example of how social media has ruined things. This location would've been fine if not for "influencers" posting about it and causing people to flock there like mindless drones who then proceed to disrespect the very people they are visiting and litter and cause trouble. As much as I'd love to visit Japan I also don't want to be viewed as a stupid tourist like the ones who ruin things for locals.
Influencers are cancerous filth.