Is Kyoto Worth It Anymore? "It's Become a Theme Park Called KYOTO," Writes a Neighbor of Fushimi Inari

What Japanese people said — picked from the top 60 of 3,310 comments

• Kyoto City should seriously start charging a tourist tax. There are just too many people — they need to make a real effort to bring the numbers down.

  これは本格的に観光税取った方がいいよ、京都市は 人多すぎ、ちょっと減らす努力した方がいい

  — @簡易-b5eMost liked3,178 likes

• The way things are now, Kyoto has personally become the number-one prefecture I don't want to visit.

  この状態で、個人的に1番行きたくない都道府県になってます

  — @カズハ-b5u1,626 likes

• Most of them aren't here to feel the culture and history — they just want to snap a photo and post it on Instagram.

  文化と歴史を感じるんじゃなくて単純に写真撮ってインスタに載せたいだけだろうなぁ

  — @exe69861,694 likes

• All over central Kyoto, the old Kyoto atmosphere is gone now. It's such a shame.

  京都市内はどこもかしこも昔のような京都の風情は無くなって残念

  — @きょうおか1,207 likes

• It's just too sad that Japanese people want to go to Kyoto but can't.

  日本人が京都に行きたいのに行けないなんて悲しすぎる

  — @tomochan-nc4nf848 likes

• For locals it must be unbearable — it's spilling over into their daily lives.

  地元民からしたらたまったもんじゃないだろうな 生活にも影響出てる

  — @kikumisa1125596 likes

• Please, someone actually help us. — from a Kyoto resident

  ほんまに助けてください by京都市民

  — @ajitamagunkan432 likes

• About 20 years ago, when I was a student, I'd walk through a completely empty Fushimi Inari Shrine chatting with friends. Quiet, calm — it's a lovely memory now.

  20年前くらい学生の頃、友人とおしゃべりしながら、ひとけの無い稲荷大社の中を歩いてた。 静かで、落ち着けて今ではいい思い出。

  — @フィオナ-g5s1,056 likes

• So this is what Fushimi Inari is like now… I remember going on a weekday afternoon around 2013 and it being empty, but I haven't been back since.

  いま伏見稲荷こんなことになってるんや、、、 2013年ころ平日昼間行ったら 空いてた記憶あるけど それ以来いってないからなぁ

  — @松泰-p7k17 likes

• You could just… not go? I live in ultra-crowded Osaka, so Kyoto's crowds don't really faze me — I still go like normal.

  行かなくても良いのでは？ 激混み大阪に住んでいるので 京都の混み具合は 特に問題ないから 普通に行ってます。

  — @user-su5se6ni9w13 likes

• I studied in Kyoto in the early 2000s — I loved the old capital so much I moved all the way from Kanto to go to school there. I'd been thinking of relocating to Kansai, but Kyoto might be too much now. The thing I'm chasing — an ancient capital where living tradition still breathes — honestly might be closest to Nara these days.

  京都で２０００年代前半に学生してたものです。 古都が、京都が好きで、関東からわざわざ進学してました。 関西への移住を考えていましたが、京都はかなり厳しいかもですね。 僕が求めている伝統文化が息づく古都のイメージは、今は一番奈良が近いかも。

  — @beansworship511027 likes

Is Kyoto still worth visiting?

Yes, and nobody in this thread tells you to stay away. The most-liked demand (3,178 likes) is a tourist tax to thin the crowds, not fewer individual visitors. The grief is about the famous spots at peak hours: Fushimi Inari, and central Kyoto in general, where "the old Kyoto atmosphere is gone."

Do Kyoto locals hate tourists?

No. The people posting here are Japanese viewers of a national morning show, two of whom say they live in Kyoto, and the recurring emotion is grief rather than hostility: that Japanese people can no longer enjoy their own Kyoto, and that daily life is affected. The anger, where it appears, is at the volume of tourism and the lack of crowd control, not at any visitor.

Where can you still feel the old Kyoto?

One commenter who studied in Kyoto in the early 2000s puts it plainly: the ancient-capital feeling they're chasing, an old capital where living tradition still breathes, "honestly might be closest to Nara these days" (27 likes). Others remember walking a near-empty Fushimi Inari 20 years ago. The thread's consensus is that the postcard Kyoto no longer lives at the famous spots at peak hours.