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It's such a odd take to me, but I guess I'm an expat, not a local. And I haven't lived there long enough to get bored of it. I've lived in Japan (only 2 years

It's such a odd take to me, but I guess I'm an expat, not a local. And I haven't lived there long enough to get bored of it. I've lived in Japan (only 2 years), but the family loves Japan, and we all love going back. Though maybe we lean otaku on some things like Anime... I mean there's just so much variety of stuff to do in Tokyo alone - for adults there's live music bars of all genres, for the fam: manga + book stores (western alongside Japanese), speciality stores that don't exist almost anywhere else, an huge variety of food places (like there are so many world class Ramen, Soba, Sushi, Teppanyaki joints and I haven't even discussed the world class foreign food joints), karaoke, catching a Sumo tournament, the newish Kabuki theatre in Ginza, spend time wandering the side streets of Shinjuku, or Shibuya, or Shimokitazawa, ... and I haven't even started on the temples & museums, parks, amusement parks, etc. Or how great Osaka is, etc. Temples, I agree, temples are samey, so I wouldn't do more than 1 in a trip, and usually off the packed places (like Nikko or Nara are better than Kyoto IMO unless you go to Kyoto off season and take a chance on the weather).

JCharante 4y ago
I disagree. As someone not into anime, Japan is very boring asides from their expat community. Anime is forced everywhere and it’s annoying to see them everywhere especially when it’s unnecessary. Even some simple signs need cute 2d characters when in the US we would just write text unaccompanied by anything else. What’s the point of wandering side streets? It’s a city. It’s a city whose streets highly resemble the streets of Seoul.
- parasubvert 4y ago
  Anime is part of the national heritage. I guess it is sort of like how Americans put the Stars and Stripes everywhere unnecessarily. “What’s the point of wandering side streets?” Because exploration is fun? Especially in Japan, though sure, Seoul (and HK, and a few dozen cities in Europe, and …) is also interesting to wander.

JCharante 4y ago

I disagree. As someone not into anime, Japan is very boring asides from their expat community. Anime is forced everywhere and it’s annoying to see them everywhere especially when it’s unnecessary. Even some simple signs need cute 2d characters when in the US we would just write text unaccompanied by anything else. What’s the point of wandering side streets? It’s a city. It’s a city whose streets highly resemble the streets of Seoul.

parasubvert 4y ago
Anime is part of the national heritage. I guess it is sort of like how Americans put the Stars and Stripes everywhere unnecessarily. “What’s the point of wandering side streets?” Because exploration is fun? Especially in Japan, though sure, Seoul (and HK, and a few dozen cities in Europe, and …) is also interesting to wander.