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Worst tourist attraction in Japan?

I've been living 15min by train from Tokyo Disneyland for 2 years and I still haven't set foot there. I've been to the ones in Paris and Orlando, so I guess Tokyo's version is similar. Better for kids... as I was when I went there.
 
I can't stand the humidity either, but it is definitely better than a Canadian winter too.

I know a group of American and Canadian English teachers in my town that took a trip to see Tokyo Disneyland. When you figure in the cost of Shinkansen tickets, hotels, meals and passes for the park, they spent almost 100,000 yen each for a crappy weekend trip. I couldn't fathom why they bothered, but one of them told me she was a disney fanatic and thought it would be great to brag to all her friends back home about having been to Tokyo Disneyland. I certainly don't want to judge, but for that kind of money they could have spent a couple of weeks tramping around southeast asia or something instead of spending two days waiting in lines. Just no accounting for some people's taste.
 
HEY never say anything bad about the eurpean castles and churches!!!! got that?
 

I feel so mean. I was pondering if the 5000 yen entrance (even with 1000 discount coupon) was worth it. Actually I've always been rebuked by the crowds. Just the thought of getting up at 6am and still having to queue for 1h at the entrance + at each attraction is enough to keep me away. I would possibly enjoy it if there were no queues and the weather was good though.
 
Originally posted by Himura
HEY never say anything bad about the eurpean castles and churches!!!! got that?
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I agree that people making such statements either can't appreciate architecture or arts in general, or don't know what they are talking about.

There is no comparison between Europe and Japan's heritage. Japan is one country with a quite uniformous artistic style geographically, but also historically (a 1000 years old Kyoto temple isn't that different of a 100 year old Tokyo one). Every part of Europe, not only country, but region or sometimes city, has its own style, and the huge difference of artistic periods (as we are talking aof castles and churches, and won't even mention the Antiquity), ranging from heavy 10-12th century Romanesque, light and intricated 13-15th cent. Gothic, colourful, vivid and imposng Italian Renaissance, refined and charming French Renaissance, village-style English or Dutch Renaissance, massive and solemn 16th c. Spanish Baroque, majestic and organised French 17th cent. Classical, solid and colossal 17th c. London-style, dizzy and brilliant 18th c. German Roccoco, majestic and dreamlike 19th German or Portuguese Romantic, grand Victorian buildings, surrealist Catalan or Belgian Art Nouveau and we'll stop here at the outset of the 20th century to stay in something historical.

Of course, there is so much regional diversity in each style that one can hardly get bored. Compare some Romanesque (=Heian period in Japan) building in England, Spain and Italy here. Maybe less similar than any 2 temples from any period in Japan.







If someone ever finds European architecture boring, then they are bored of life.
 
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I love European architecture too. I lived in Germany for 4 years when I was a kid, I can remember my parents taking me around to the castles, cathedrals and old towns and being totally awed by the beauty of it all. Heidelberg was my favorite, I loved the castle and going for walks around the university with its old buildings, it was fantastic. Rothenberg is very wonderful too.
 
Just thinking of another really bad tourist attration, anyone ever been to Osaka Castle? Its concrete, the interior looks like likes the inside of a shopping mall and it has a big glass and steel elevator shaft running along the exterior of the Donjon. Plus the park around it has been turned into a shanty town for Osaka's homeless. Don't get much worse.
 
Osaka castle was destroyed, so they had to reconstruct it if you wanted to see anything at all. From outside it does look good. What's more the huge stone wall and moat around the castle ae the original and are IMO more impressive than the castle itself (think at the size of each stone and how many of them there are... that's almost as impressive as the pyramids of Egypt, if it weren't for the ancienty of the latter).

Anyway, what do you expect to find in a Japanese castle, They've never been like Versailles or an Italian palazzo. They were defensive castles, not nice residential palaces or chateaux. I knew how the interior was from reputation, so I didn't even bother entering.

And I haven't seen so many homeless in the park. Don't even remember seing any...
 
I know the castle was destroyed, but don't you think they could have actually tried to make the reconstruction look something like the original? Instead, when you enter the new one, you are confronted with a polished marble lobby with a big chandelier, modern elevators and a gift shop staffed by young women in neatly pressed uniforms. This was at one point Japan's most powerful castle, the site of the famous battle between the Tokugawa and Toyotomi armies of samurai that ushered in the Edo age. But the modern interior is so sterile it invokes images of a holiday Inn hotel rather than 17th century Japan.

I live about a 5 minute walk from Himeji Castle, one of Japan's finest. In the 1950s, the Castle's wood structure was so rotted that they had to take down the main building. But instead of replacing it with a shoddy concrete replica, they rebuilt it in the exact same manner in which the original was constructed. The result is that Himeji Castle is a beauty on the inside and out, and a pleasure to visit. Why couldn't Osaka have done the same thing?

The last time I visited Osaka castle was about 3 years ago. At the time the park was a sea of blue waterproof tarps that the homeless use to make their dwellings. I heard that because of the World Cup last year the police had tried to clear them all out to avoid embarrasing the city when all the internationsl visitors came. Perhaps they are no longer there, if so I stand corrected.
 
Oh, and you are right about the stone walls and moat being very impressive. Its strange though that you can visit the original, impressive walls for free, but entering the lousy concrete donjon costs a few hundred yen. So, for anyone going to Osaka castle, don't bother paying the entrance fee, just stroll along the walls and you'll see everything worth seeing.
 
I am not sure but I heard that Osaka castle was rebuilt thanks to donations from the locals. They may not have had enough fund to use the traditional techniques. Concrete is cheap and Japanese seem to be very fond of it (a bit like Romans liked marble, French people like "cut stone" or Dutch people like bricks I am being sarcastic... genuine Japanese concrete, certified neat and clean for optimal cost ).
 
I'm not sure about how the original reconstruction was funded. It was renovated in 1997 though, at which time all the polished marble and elevators were installed at quite considerable expense. I am pretty sure that must have been funded by the city, only a municipal government could have wasted that much money in such an incompetent manner.

The proliferation of concrete in Japan has got to be my biggest pet peeve. Its ugly and its everywhere. It seems the only material that could possibly rival it in the hearts and minds of modern Japanese is molded plastic siding, which seems to cover the exterior of every new building being put up.

Its getting to be such a tacky place.......
 
The Clock Tower church in Sapporo is lame. Small white building w/ a clock on top. That's it.
 
Originally posted by Speed
The Clock Tower church in Sapporo is lame. Small white building w/ a clock on top. That's it.
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There may be hundreds of churches in Japan (for the supposedly 1% of Christians there, though I've never met any in 2 years), but not a single one is worth a second look. I don't know if their architects were Japanese, but they are even uglier than the average concrete buildings. Coming from a part of Europe where everyone lives within 10km of a church at least 500 (if not 1000) years old, I can't imagine considering Japanese churches (even "old" ones in Nagasaki) as touristical attractions.
 
Degrading to women? How? Maybe not many people know it, but those shrines are armed with penises because when a couple is infertile, they believe it to be the man's fault. At least, that's what I've been told.

Ah, another one that's just barely scratching the surface...
 
Hattoji Dam recreational park- wow, I want to go there now, just to see how awful it is.

Not a tourist attraction per se, but I travelled a long, long way (slow train)- from Shizuoka to Nagoya- to go to that famous phallic symbol festival. I got there at 5 p.m., and the festival was over. What kinda festival ends before 5 P.M.??
 
Originally posted by SalaryMan
No-one has said this one yet so I guess I will ..

The museum of sex ... http://www1.quolia.com/dekoboko/

I went there and the whole place is extremely degrading to women. Its's in uwajima.
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Is this where they only bring in new art and memorabilia exhibits every 150 years? The site makes it sound very cultural and historic, just way overcrowded, but naturally going back that far it doesn't really even make sense to judge as degrading or not, no?
 
I found another lousy tourist attraction the other day that was actually better than the Hattoji dam complex but only because it was more bizarre.

I was riding my bicycle in the countryside about an hour from my place with my wife. We were going along, enjoying the mountains (without powerlines even!), rice fields and traditional Japanese farmhouses, when suddenly what do you think we came across? A 2/3 scale replica of Paris's Arche De Triumphe no less! Literally, right there in the middle of nowhere, sticking out like John Stamos at an Oscar award ceremony. Somewhat puzzled we went in for a closer look and found that this Arche was built to mark the entrance to Taiyo Park, one of Japan's many ill-advised tourist attractions that lie acrosss the length and breadth of the archipelago. Taiyo Park is devoted to the recreation of famous international buildings in a very large park that straddles two mountains. The barrier is marked by a sizeable replica of the great wall of China, complete with towers, that runs along one of the mountains.

Despite it being a sunny sunday afternoon on a summer long weekend, we found the place almost completely deserted, save for a lone employee sitting at the ticket gate. I guess that is what comes from building a tacky theme park in the middle of nowhere. The admission price was only 500 yen, but we decided to pass as it seemed a bad idea to contribute money to such a flagrant waste of resources. Instead we rode around the park on our bikes and enjoyed the view of the many statues and buildings from afar. As there is no fence around the park and only a single employee it would have been quite simple to just walk in from just about any point and avoid the entrance fee, but we would have felt too guilty had we taken advantage.

This place was much cooler than Hattoji's Dam complex because we were able to take a few pictures of each other next to the wall without having a bunch of tourists clogging up the background as would probably be the case at the real great wall. More adventurous couples than us could probably take a shot at joining the 'great wall' club without fear of being disturbed too.
 
The worst tourist attraction will be Kyoto. That's for sure.
Having lived here for more than 25 years, the city has never
looked beautiful to me.

It's always a mystery such an ugly city has been Japan's most
popular destination, attracting more than 30 million tourists
every year.

What you actually see today are numerous utility poles, cables,
vending machines, tacky billboards, convenience stores, pachinko
parlors etc... You can't feel old Kyoto anymore. It's gone for good.

Waves of sheer modernization and commercialization in post-war
Japan struck our ancient capital, having destroyed its beautiful
townscapes completely. We have to be ashamed, really.

"Kyoto is one of the world's most beautiful and attractive city".
Our authorities always say so boastfully. Obviously they don't
have any sense of beauty(or ugliness).

If I was a terrorist with lots of bombs, I'd go blow up the entire city.
 
I agree, kyotomanabu, Kyoto is really a terrible city nowadays.

The new station is a disgusting grey monster that looms over the city center like a giant piece of garbage. The whole city centre is just an ugly jumble of concrete, plastic, neon lights and power lines.

I always get really depressed when I visit Kyoto. The only nice area is around Higashiyama, which has lots of really beautiful temples and old houses, but even there the skyline is dominated by powerlines and I think that eventually the few remaining traditional houses are going to be replaced by cheap plastic crap like what has happened everywhere else. And to get there in the first place means travelling through kilometres of dreary, treeless urban moonscape. I can't stand it!

Don't know if I agree with blowing up the entire city though. I'd probably just have every city politician over the last forty years tossed into jail for the rest of their lives to think about what they have done.
 
i like the station myself, took lotsa pictures
kyoto world was nice too
isn't nintendo main hq located in kyoto?
i saw some nice temples too (did not go in)
 
Originally posted by senseiman
The new station is a disgusting grey monster that looms over the city center like a giant piece of garbage.
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I don't quite agree. It's only shocking if one comes to Kyoto with ancient culture in mind, but as a piece of modern architecture, Kyoto station is remarkable, and comparable to the Tokyo International Forum in Yuurakucho - which comes under more praise than criticism, even from tourists.

Don't know if I agree with blowing up the entire city though. I'd probably just have every city politician over the last forty years tossed into jail for the rest of their lives to think about what they have done.
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What a pleasant idea. But culturally speaking, Japanese were not yet responsible in the aftermath of WWII. Monuments in Europe have also been detroyed and plundered throughout the centuries. Rome has been dismantled in the middle ages to rebuilt ordinnary dwellings. It's not war or natural disasters that have destroyed the Colloseum or Foro Romano.
It's less than 200 years since Westerners first realised the importance of preserving the historical and cultural heritage. Japan having been isolated and evolved so little during the Edo period, it's normal that in the 1950's people were not yet mature enough culturally to understand the importance of keeping old buildings.
 
Architecturally impressive or not, I still think the station is an ugly piece of junk. It is unnecessarily imposing, its grey, it reflects nothing of the local culture, it isn't visually pleasing from the outside (its just a big rectangle). I suppose its a matter of taste, but no matter what point of view I try to look at it from I can't think of a single redeeming feature in the whole building that would ever make me say something nice about it.


That is true about people not being culturally aware of the necessity of preserving historical places in the aftermath of WW2, not just in Japan but in most western countries too. But in the west they seem to have learned that tearing down centuries old buildings and replacing them with ugly concrete eyesores is a bad thing to do. But in Kyoto and other Japanese cities, they are still doing that to the few areas that haven't been destroyed yet, which is very disheartening. In my neighborhood in Himeji, I see another Edo or Meiji house being flattened just about every month. Instead of being replaced by something tasteful, Convenience stores, giant concrete 'mansions' and sterile plastic cube houses are being built. It is turning the cities here into genuinely hideous places.
 
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