May 5, 2024
Asakusa, Golden Week, and crowds
Asakusa isn't my first choice for a Golden Week destination, but that's where I spent a morning on Saturday, May 4th. The objective was a field trip for my high school English club. They wanted to go to a location with a high density of non-Japanese people to do on-street interviews in English. They experienced lots of interaction. For every group that declined, another was happy to participate in a questionnaire they had prepared.
I had anticipated the crowds would be dense. I estimate the volume of people is as high as the new year. However, this isn't that audience. It's masses of foreign tourists.
The veranda of Sensoji was wall-to-wall people. I regret to say I gave it a miss. I saw people lounging on benches like beach chairs, others blocking the offertory box while craning their necks to peer into Asakusa Shrine. I wonder how the locals feel about the vast numbers of visitors ticking off locations on their tourism maps.
Is this volume of visitors sustainable? A column by a University of Tsukuba researcher in East Asia Forum looked at the impact and response of the rising visitor numbers and ways to redirect attention to locations outside major centers.
I love Asakusa, and I'll be back again during a less busy period.
How can Japan get the economic and local interests in balance when it comes to sustainable tourism?
2 Comments
genkidesu
on May 5
The effect of overtourism is such an important topic at the moment, especially when there are local governments at their wits end with tourists not respecting laws and putting themselves and others in danger (e.g. in the case of the Lawson in Fujikawaguchiko). I think it's especially hard, too, with the yen where it is at the moment – it's only incentivizing hordes of tourists to come, because they're getting so much bang for their buck. I think some regional areas need to do a better job of promoting themselves to international visitors. I wholly believe that every single prefecture has cool things to see and do, but the big three (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto) seem to get all the glory. Some do a great job of promoting themselves to a Japanese audience, but not always to a more global one. Better promotion of some of the regional rail passes would be good, too!
TonetoEdo
on May 5
@genkidesu I agree with you, other regions have excellent guides and regional promotions, but they need more attention. Social media pushes the big three - Osaka, Kyoto, and Tokyo. I'm thinking about, you, Saitama, Gunma, Tochigi, and Ibaraki. There are so many cultural and natural attractions in these prefectures. And they're easy to access from Tokyo.