I highly recommend visiting Kyoto despite these news. The city is absolutely beautiful and well worth the tourist tax. I hadn’t experience any prejudice there as a tourist and the local generally like foreigners.
You can also avoid the tax with a day trip as Kyoto is right next to Osaka which is quite cheap.
The overtourism issue is mostly entirely a skill issue as it’s free income that can be controlled through tourist taxes like this one. So this tax is fundamentally a good thing.
Never been to Japan, I think Japan is an interesting place, kinda wanna visit someday, but I have the impression that Japan is kinda Sinophobic, not sure if that’s the propaganda or if its real, but given its a homogenous society, I would not be surprised if Sinophobia is still a thing. Japan still haven’t really apologized for WW2 and the invasion of China and various Asian countries. I saw photos of some stores in Japan having a sign that says “Chinese people and dogs not allowed” or something vile, idk I’m kinda scared.
It could just be the childhood conditioning that caused me to have this subconcious fear, I really don’t know.
Idk…
I do have a US passport so I could just use English, learn like a few Japanese phrases, and never speak a word of Mandarin and they might not notice my ethnicity… 🤷♂️
You’re probably seeing some of the oversensationalized ultranationalist garbage coming from that loud minority (and their loudspeaker vans), as some of the supposed incidents involving Mainlander tourists are isolated cases. That afaik there are fewer “locals-only” izakaya and exist only in rural areas or lesser known urban areas (but even then you’ll have to look out for some pushy touts and bars charging too much for anything on the menu).
You should be fine using other guides to know where better to go to, such as Atlas Obscura.
Can’t say I’ve seen anything of sorts personally but I’m generally an average tourist. Loads of Chinese tourists as well that seem to be doing just fine.
I’ve heard of all sorts of stories about Japanese hate for tourists but Japan is huge and after visiting for years I’ve had only 1 discrimination experience.
I highly recommend visiting Kyoto despite these news. The city is absolutely beautiful and well worth the tourist tax. I hadn’t experience any prejudice there as a tourist and the local generally like foreigners.
You can also avoid the tax with a day trip as Kyoto is right next to Osaka which is quite cheap.
The overtourism issue is mostly entirely a skill issue as it’s free income that can be controlled through tourist taxes like this one. So this tax is fundamentally a good thing.
Never been to Japan, I think Japan is an interesting place, kinda wanna visit someday, but I have the impression that Japan is kinda Sinophobic, not sure if that’s the propaganda or if its real, but given its a homogenous society, I would not be surprised if Sinophobia is still a thing. Japan still haven’t really apologized for WW2 and the invasion of China and various Asian countries. I saw photos of some stores in Japan having a sign that says “Chinese people and dogs not allowed” or something vile, idk I’m kinda scared.
It could just be the childhood conditioning that caused me to have this subconcious fear, I really don’t know.
Idk…
I do have a US passport so I could just use English, learn like a few Japanese phrases, and never speak a word of Mandarin and they might not notice my ethnicity… 🤷♂️
You’re probably seeing some of the oversensationalized ultranationalist garbage coming from that loud minority (and their loudspeaker vans), as some of the supposed incidents involving Mainlander tourists are isolated cases. That afaik there are fewer “locals-only” izakaya and exist only in rural areas or lesser known urban areas (but even then you’ll have to look out for some pushy touts and bars charging too much for anything on the menu).
You should be fine using other guides to know where better to go to, such as Atlas Obscura.
Can’t say I’ve seen anything of sorts personally but I’m generally an average tourist. Loads of Chinese tourists as well that seem to be doing just fine.
I’ve heard of all sorts of stories about Japanese hate for tourists but Japan is huge and after visiting for years I’ve had only 1 discrimination experience.
It’s called “passing” or even “masking”, and people’ve been doing it before time began. I’m genuinely sorry that’s a thing, though. 🙇🏽♂️