🧭 Travel Tips & Honne👍 3,247Gion’s ¥10,000 Fine for Its Private Alleys — and Locals Blame the Tour Guides, Not You
Kyoto's Gion district warns that stepping into its private side-alleys — where visitors had been chasing geiko for photos — now carries a ¥10,000 fine. But when a Japanese news crew filmed people walking past the signs anyway, the 2,900-plus comments underneath didn't pile on the foreign tourists. They turned on the Japanese tour guides leading them in. The most-liked comment (3,247 likes) is blunt: fine the guides who "play dumb" and walk tourists past the signs. "I thought foreigners were ignoring it," says another (865 likes), "but it's the tour people taking them through." Locals want the guide companies named and fined per head they lead (585 likes), and point out that if Japanese guides won't respect the rule, tourists can't be expected to either (499 likes). The takeaway for a visitor: it isn't you they resent — but you're the one who pays the fine, so treat Gion's marked private lanes as exactly what they are, someone's home.