Thanks for the link and the video! That’s one of the most interesting videos I’ve seen for a while. That explains quite a lot why Kyoto looks like the way it does.
In your link, there is a link to a photo gallery from a person who took lots of photos of pretty much the same places that I went to that afternoon. And that Kyoto was gorgeous. And I can understand better Kiyomizu-dera’s appeal- the glory of all the red leaves surrounding the temple in the fall.
The first time I went to Tokyo, I arrived by bus at 7pm. I had gotten the International Plan from AT&T the week before and they assured me that I had unlimited data and texts in Japan.
Not even close to being true.
I had no maps, no Lonely Planet and no clue where my hotel was, only that it was close to Ginza. No worries, I thought, I will ask a hotel doorman. First one pointed my west, no sign of my hotel. Next one pointed me south, no hotel. Repeat a final time. Finally I realized that the doormen may not know my little hotel and did not want to tell me “no” so I went in and asked a concierge. He knew my hotel and drew me a little map.
But my first impression was that the doormen in Tokyo hated me. It is funny now, but being lost in a “strange” city as the sun is going is unpleasant.
The doormen were not being passive-aggressive in my case, they just did not know my hotel and did not want to tell me “I do not know”.
But to this day I always go back to that neighborhood (well, close to it) when I visit Japan.
You’re welcome and thank you for the link you posted. That person got some fantastic photos! They said many of them were taken during COVID when foreign tourists were not being allowed into the country. So I can kind of understand how the photographer was able to take such photos with nary a soul in them. But I suspect (other than the night photos where they said there really weren’t any people around) that the photographer waited for the right moment to take photos with no one in them (I can be a bit of a skeptic…’
The last time I was in Kyoto was in the fall of 2017. Kyoto was FULL of foreign tourists and I swear each one of them had a selfie stick! Walking was incredibly difficult and taking pictures nearly impossible (especially at Fushimi Inari Shrine) because people were stopping for lengthy periods of time to get the right shots and take videos. I hear that now, although the trend of selfie sticks isn’t really a problem now, the crowds are much worse.
Regarding the video, as I have mentioned in other comments, Kyoto, like many tourism-dependent places like parts of Hawaii, various Caribbean islands, Venice. Italy, etc have a love-hate relationship with tourists. There are various ways to deal with it and the topic in the video seems to be one good.method.
