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- 20 Jan 2015
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Tourists Are Causing Headaches In Japan
Until recently, Japan didn’t have much of an influx of foreign tourists. Now, it does, and with that comes problems.
kotaku.com
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And while there's certainly a backlash against mass tourism, the dilemma of locals vs travellers could be mitigated by introducing a range of measures some of which do work in other places:
- Educate travellers on cultural particularities, not by refusing them entry but by elucidating, just like Kamakura did when they tried to ban eating in public.
- Educate locals on how to educate foreign travellers, especially in a country like Japan where not all cultural intricacies are obvious to tourists. Collaborate with foreign tour operators for this purpose.
- Regulate tourist streams in the most affected areas (e.g. Kiyomizudera in Kyoto).
- Impose tourist taxes and
- Use them to improve the local infrastructure (benefitting both locals and foreign visitors).
When I first lived in Japan over a decade ago, Ginza felt like a completely different place. When I came back 3 years ago I couldn't believe how much the buses of Chinese that were emptying into UniQlo/drug stores changed the feeling of the place. Once a classy, quiet area, it has become a raucous, elbowing one. In the daytime at least. At night the buses mostly pack them off to their hotels or whatever and it feels more "Ginza".
Why pharmacies? Back in North America it's not uncommon for US citizens to travel to Mexico or Canada to get cheap generics, is it something similar here?Same in the centre of Osaka, just full of tourists now. It's always been busy really but half the shops in Shinsaibashi-suji are now pharmacies. No let up in it at night either, the only respite comes from typhoons preventing flights coming in hahaha
UniQlo is budget crap, and they have heaps of it in China.Fashion? That makes no sense a lot of the time anyway
I haven't thought about that Beat Takeshi fella in a whole mess of years, as I stopped watching any television some 10 or so years ago. But when I read that name I still remember that business a long time ago when he went into an office building right down the street from where I had my office and he and a couple of others, --- one woman also with him, if I remember correctly --- and he and his partners messed up some fella or something like that. I believe my memory is telling me they actually attacked the individual. I was down the street at Obunsha. Maybe 30 plus years ago? Anybody remember that? Seems I also remember, now that he's on my mind, he had a motor scooter accident, didn't he? He's from Osaka, isn't he? Was paired up with some other comedian fella, yes? They have a special name for that, don't they? Or had.
Gosh I feel old.