Ancestors

Written by Sige 😺 on 2025-01-22 at 06:03

How do people handle tourism? Especially being the tourist?

I've been hearing a lot about places overcrowded with tourists - heck I've been to Amsterdam last year and the center was unbearably packed so I tried to avoid a lot of that.

Yet it feels like so many places to go and see are similar to that.

How can you even still have vacation in a nice place without becoming part of the problem?

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Written by Four-armed Incubehemoth KD on 2025-01-22 at 09:14

@sige I think the single most useful skill to cultivate to be a good tourist is conscious social mirroring. Are the locals on this train talking loudly or staying quiet? Are the people buying food at this street vendor walking off with it or staying to eat it there?

Doing some basic etiquette research in advance is a good idea, but if you want to be a respectful visitor it'll always be more useful to look at what the people around you are doing and follow their lead.

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Written by Four-armed Incubehemoth KD on 2025-01-22 at 09:29

@sige More specific to crowded places, here's a rule of thumb I use as to whether it's worth braving/adding to the throng (w/ JP examples):

If it's a unique natural, historical, or cultural site (Fushimi Inari Taisha, Himeji Castle, Mt. Fuji), it's usually worth it, and there will be a lot more domestic tourists in the crowd than actual locals having their lives disrupted. It's worth seeking out lesser-known places as well, but seeing the famous ones is still fun even with crowds.

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Toot

Written by Four-armed Incubehemoth KD on 2025-01-22 at 09:37

@sige If it's a commercial district, famous restaurant or food spot, or modern tourist trap (Dōtonbori, Harajuku, Shibuya) it's usually a lot less worth it. A lot of the stores there aren't worth the hype, or are chains that have locations elsewhere that are a lot less crowded. I'd still encourage visiting one or two you really want to see, but going to a quieter shopping district and mirroring how the people you see there treat their space is usually going to be a better time.

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Descendants

Written by Sige 😺 on 2025-01-22 at 10:14

@hornedking I will sign that. When I was in Amsterdam, passing by some of those tourist hotspots, they mostly felt like overpriced tourist traps or are shops and such I could seek out at home as well.

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