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samurai007 (Offline)
JF Old Timer
 
Posts: 890
Join Date: Oct 2007
01-14-2008, 09:19 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by xxMijimexx View Post
I plan on going to Japan too, when I'm older. I just don't know anything about the city or its people. Sorry if I'm butting in, I was just curious.
This quote (and the thread in general) makes a very common mistake I see too often, with people thinking Tokyo=Japan, or is the best/only thing to see in Japan. I know the above was probably an innocent mistake, but it gives me a chance to say Tokyo IMO is not really representative of all of Japan, it's just 1 big city. IMO, and my experience, the real Japan is found in the smaller towns, the out-of-the-way places, the temples and shrines, the fishing villages and terraces of rice paddies climbing the hillsides, the mikan farmers and family-run restaurants, the onsens and castles.

Sure, the night-life or the cos-players in Tokyo are a side of Japan too, but too many people seem to forget about all the rest of Japan. If I were to return to Japan for a vacation, I would not even step 1 foot in Tokyo. I'd fly into Osaka Airport and hang around the Kansai region (and maybe head south to Shikoku or Kyushu), where there are FAR more things to see and do IMO. Big cities tend to be fairly similar anywhere in the world... lots of impersonal highrise buildings, crowded, busy, and constantly rushing. Sure, visit Tokyo (or Osaka, which is a mini-Tokyo in many ways), but get out and see the rest of Japan, the parts that really make it unique and different, the "real Japan", don't just stay in Tokyo...


JET Program, 1996-98, Wakayama-ken, Hashimoto-shi

Link to pictures from my time in Japan
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