⛩️ Places & Hidden Gems👍 3,178Is Kyoto Worth It Anymore? “It’s Become a Theme Park,” Locals Say
A morning-news clip about tourists overwhelming a Fushimi Inari railroad crossing pulled over 3,300 comments — and the loudest voices are Kyoto locals, not visitors. The single most-liked comment (3,178 likes) is blunt: Kyoto is simply too crowded and needs a tourist tax to thin the numbers. Right behind it, locals call Kyoto "the number-one prefecture I don't want to visit now" (1,626 likes) and mourn that "the city of Kyoto has become a Japanese theme park called KYOTO — not a place to live anymore" (922 likes). The recurring ache isn't anger at any one visitor; it's that Japanese people can no longer enjoy their own Kyoto, and that the postcard atmosphere has drained out of the famous spots. So is it still worth coming? Locals aren't saying stay away — they're saying skip the crush, and a few point to where the old Kyoto feeling still survives.