Fascinating. I have no idea what the fascination with Japan, I must have missed something.
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Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
91–100 of 512 posts
Re: Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know about the Ramen place (I can't believe that they wouldn't take cash?), but I agree with you that more places are doing this kind of "two markets" stuff -- it's even becoming official, in that now there's officially sanctioned "foreigner pricing" for certain temples, shrines, and parks. There's also Google Maps and Yelp vs. Japan's local version (pretty much any review on the former two are useless, and h…
> I really miss the days when it was possible to be welcomed pretty much anywhere as a foreigner and have almost universal expectations of high quality, scam-free experiences How long ago was that? It was certainly true in fairly large portions of the world, but there are plenty of places where, for as long as I can remember, you could pretty much expect to be scammed regularly. In many cases those scams would be for…
In Japan? A few years ago the experience was completely different.
Re: Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
#93There are a ton of articles about over-tourism in Japan lately, and after thinking about it for awhile, I think you can boil it down to two things other than the obvious (the yen losing value, etc.) 1. The extreme success of Japanese culture via media, specifically abroad. This wasn't just a thing that happened accidentally, it was in some sense planned for decades. See for example the Cool Japan initiative: https://…
I visited in 2007 and 2024 and the weird is still there, but some of the “this place is at the absolute cutting edge of cool and tech and weird” is gone. The most disappointing thing was seeing how much of the cutting edge “PC” and electronics culture was gone from Akihabara (presumably it all went to Shenzhen) and how everything sold there is just older gaming systems (did not stop us from purchasing a beautiful Nin…
The weird thing in Japan for me was a book store in Tokyo, filled by men at 2am, all reading comics books.
Re: Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.reddit.com/r/funnysigns/comments/1getgra/a_resta... Edit: The red text at the bottom says: この日本語が読める方は、 ご入店くださいませ = "if you can read this Japanese text, please come in" Edit 2: just the original reddit post link then
The link is dead
It's not.
However this is easily "beaten" by using circle to search -> translate on your smart phone.
Re: Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
#95I'll agree certain locations are getting "instagram famous" and really ruining it for the locals, but I don't think they are worse off because of it. Just let people flock to the one picture spot, they did it before social media, and now there are just more of them, nothing new here.
If anything, the tourists queuing to buy the latest novelty doughnut are not taking up space somewhere else.
Re: Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
> no foreigners It's such a contrast to USA, where I doubt that such a thing would even be legal. And also the bit about no tattoos. That's lawsuit city.
> That's lawsuit city Aren't private businesses in the US allowed to deny access to their premises for any reasons? Seems like a weird thing to get sued over, I think in most places if you own the local, you get to decide who goes there, unless it's a place for government or similar.
You may deny entry based on your own criteria provided you are not discriminating on race, color, religion, national origin, disability status, veteran status, age (more wiggle room here) or other state-specific traits (sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, etc.).
I don't think there's any place in America that would be illegal to bar entry based on the presence of tattoos.
Re: Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know about the Ramen place (I can't believe that they wouldn't take cash?), but I agree with you that more places are doing this kind of "two markets" stuff -- it's even becoming official, in that now there's officially sanctioned "foreigner pricing" for certain temples, shrines, and parks. There's also Google Maps and Yelp vs. Japan's local version (pretty much any review on the former two are useless, and h…
> I really miss the days when it was possible to be welcomed pretty much anywhere as a foreigner and have almost universal expectations of high quality, scam-free experiences How long ago was that? It was certainly true in fairly large portions of the world, but there are plenty of places where, for as long as I can remember, you could pretty much expect to be scammed regularly. In many cases those scams would be for…
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Re: Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
#98Seems like a long winded version of "No one goes there anymore anyways, its too crowded".
Re: Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
"they’re serious about “no entry” if you have tattoos" That's nothing unusual in Japan, even Japanese people in Japan can't join a gym or get car insurance if they've got tattoos. They're serious about that stuff for a reason.
I suspect a blind eye would be turned if it’s pretty obviously not a yakuza tattoo right?
I wouldn't think so. It seemed to me that most places were quite strict about it.
Re: Overtourism in Japan, and how it hurts small businesses
#100Fascinating. I have no idea what the fascination with Japan, I must have missed something.
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