The Most Japanesey Japanese Things Are in Kyoto
Or are they? A rural guide's rant about how Kyoto does not equal Japan.
I heard someone say "The point of going to Japan is doing Japanese things and the most Japanesey Japanese things are in Kyoto."
This doozy of a claim was made with a straight face
"The point of going to Japan is doing Japanese things and the most Japanesey Japanese things are in Kyoto. "
Allow me to take a break for a fun little rant. I found it in the rJapanTravelTips sub on reddit recently where there's a recurring theme where people imply Kyoto is the only 'real' Japan and one questioner said:
"We want to avoid Kyoto due to over tourism"
The main gist of the question was about winging it, or relaxed travel without plans, but the comment that stuck out to me was from a redditor that replied.
"Sure but the point of going to Japan is doing Japanese things and the most Japanesey Japanese things are in Kyoto. At some point you need to accept that you're a tourist coming to do touristy things and the good stuff is popular for a reason. The times when Japan was some weird undiscovered country at the edge of the world and you can be the only foreigner whereever you go are unfortunately over."
Wow? Lets break it down.
"Sure but the point of going to Japan is doing Japanese things"
Sure. It can be. for many people, the point of going to Japan is to experience a different culture, see how other people in other parts of the world live. Try different foods, just get out of their element.
Of course, if they are trying to do that in Japan, that will by natrually be filled by doing Japanese things. So yes, in that sense the point of going to Japan is doing Japanese things. The reddit user is off to a good start. But thats where it begins to veer off a bit.
"the most Japanesey Japanese things are in Kyoto"
Did I say veer off? I mean come to a screeching halt.
This is news to me. It has me questioning my entire thirty years in Japan, and all my experiences that I have, until now, that I thought gave me a better understanding of Japane culture. Hopefully I am just overthinking this, but I feel like I am spiraling into some sort of existential crisis.
I don't live in Kyoto, I only visit sometimes. The majority of my experiences are in rural Japanese villages where tourists hardly go. Now I find that even the Japanese people in my village in Nagano aren't doing Japanesey things? Or even if their daily life is Japanesey they're just somehow less Japanesey than if they did those things in Kyoto?
What makes Kyoto more Japanesey?
I mean, in our area we have temples. In fact, we have a lot of them on a per capita basis. Perhaps the temples and shrines my neighbors and the generations before them have been going to are less Japanesey than Inari shrine or Kiyomizu-dera?
The diet is almost exclusively a Japanese food diet, since there are no international restaurants like in Kyoto. Heck, not only do we eat only Japanese food, we also grow rice and soba. Is it considered less Japanesey that Kyoto because we grow it ourselves?
People speak Japanese, all be it a slightly different dialect, so yeah, I guess it is not as Japanesey as more standard Japanese. I guess it is valid to say that if you learn the Japanese spoken in our neck of the woods, it's not as good for passing a proper Japanese proficiency test.
We have small festivals that, until now, I thought were traditional Japanese festivals. Maybe they are just too small, too local. Maybe that's why large crowds don't come out to see them. I mean, who would want to go see a not-so-Japanesey festival that's only attended by locals.
We have history, lots of history dating back to the Jyomon period. We even have direct historical connection to some Kyoto temples. You would think that the priests that studied in Kyoto and came here to carry on the sect they studies would have at least brought a little Japanesey-nes back with them.
We even have what I thought was traditional Japanese crafts and architecture. The people of Kyoto send their Butsudan alters here to be repaired. I hope they don't catch wind of the low level of Japanesey that is going inot the work.
"At some point you need to accept that you're a tourist coming to do touristy things"
Ahh... maybe that's a clue. The most obvious thing that I can think of that Kyoto has be we do not is crowds of tourists. Maybe it is the presence of tourists that make a random Japanese place into a truly Japanesey Japanese place.
If we could only get more tourists maybe we can become Japanesey too. (If you would like to help our humble farm village achieve that, just contact us).
Are the locals who live here even Japanesey?
I visit Kyoto more than most of the Japanese people I know. So if those Japanese people I know are not visiting Kyoto, have they even experienced Japanesey Japanese things? Would they know it if they even saw it? Maybe if we get more tourists it will give the people from our rural town a taste of true Japaneseyness. Maybe some tourists could teach us how to be Japanesey.
Maybe when the locals invite out guests to go foraging wild vegetables and bamboo shoots, the presence of the tourists we bring will finally make that a Japanesey activity. Maybe the presence of a few visitors will finally validate the festival's Japaneseyness.
If the local people in places that are not Kyoto do something that does not have tourists, it's not a touristy thing, but, it's not Kyoto, so it is not really Japanese thing to do either.
"and the good stuff is popular for a reason. "
This is getting into a whole, much bigger topic which could be an entire book, but I touch on it a little in a post about When Should I Get Off The Golden Route.
Of course that, in this case there is no definition of what "the good stuff" is, so we must assume the Reddit user is speaking of the Japanesey things that happen in Kyoto. And the reason that it is popular is that it is simply more Japanesey than the rest of Japan.
They then end with:
"The times when Japan was some weird undiscovered country at the edge of the world and you can be the only foreigner whereever you go are unfortunately over."
But presumably those days ended long ago if we accept the logic that only Kyoto holds the "real" Japanesey things. Kyoto hasn't been a place where you could wander as the lone foreigner for centuries. Yet step outside the Golden Route and you'll still find villages, festivals, farms and mountain paths where you may be the only visitor around.
That's the Japan we live in and it's still very much out there. You can even find it without traveling far from Central Japan, on our custom bike and walking tours of rural Japan.