I support the tourist price. Residents can show their ID or utility bill etc. to prove their address where they pay the resident tax that goes to maintaining these facilities. Sounds like a fair deal to me. Just to make it sound less attacking though, they tend to phrase it 'local's discount (e.g. 県民割)' instead of tourist price. Enjoyed the pod as always :)
I think what they should do is to raise the price for everyone just as Austin said. But then issue coupons and publicize them only to the residents in Japan (i.e. including foreigners who are actually living here and not just visiting). But tourists being overcharged does happen in other countries as well. Even in the States, there are many universities where foreigners have to pay double the amount of tuition than an American.
Thank you both for interesting discussions. I really enjoy your show on Spotify podcast. About the topic of tourist places, i agree to make tourists/residents prices. Raising price for everyone damages only damages local residents. It sound just "outsider"'s idea for me. The point is how to gently/secretly distinguish them. I guess if kyoto city can make payment app with discount for thier residents connected to thier residential info, it would be much easier. Another my sad idea is people should know possibility to be treated differently when you visit/live in foreign countries. Ideally nothing like it happens, but it is too much expectations. *Sorry if my comments sound offensive. As long as they have good manner, i like foreign tourist cuz I'm happy that they got somehow interested in our culture:)
Glad that you brought up this topic. There’s already some comments mentioning the idea of local discounts, and I 100% agree with that. Only people who have their IDs showing they live there can get discount. Tourist price itself isn’t a bad idea but doesn’t go well with Japanese culture. No more racial profiling and pointless discussion.
Well local discount is not really good, but rather higher rate to foreigners is the best choice to maintain the country good so that only people loving Japan (except the official visa holders) can come visit and maintain public order, since a lot of bad things have happened ..
@@Arrrow54 thanks for sharing your thoughts. You mean there should be one price? My question for you is that if you have tourists price and local price, how you find whether they’re just tourists or residents. Having two prices and deciding which price should be applied to someone in front of you just by their appearance is defs racial profile.
日本を離れて10年以上・・・オレゴン州に住んでます。 友人たちから、どこへ行っても外国人ばかり・・と言う話は聞かされていました。 久しく日本へ戻ってませんが、お話しを聞きながら「なんだかなぁ～😮💨」と溜息をついてしまいました。 FBにも、誰のアカウントかわかりませんが、日本に関して情報を発信している投稿にはAIで作成されたような日本の写真が掲載されてたり・・。埼玉のクルド人の問題もニュースで知ったり・・・。 今、一時帰国したら、「昔の日本は今いずこ？」と感じるのでしょうか。 It doesn't matter which country they come from or whether they live in Japan. What matters most to me is the state of mind of the person❤
I totally understand that Austin wants everyone to be treated equally, which is definitely what all of us should do, but I want him to understand and admit that Japanese in general have good manners. We never bother a convenience store to the point where the store decides to put up a fence. We never urinate on a shrine gate, nor do we kick and punch deers in Nara(considered divine in Shinto) (Both of them are what some Asian guys did... I was devastated to see that.) Few of us litter in the street , except for those who like to hang out at nightlife districts and those who were not raised well. I totally agree with you guys that we shouldn't expect too much from foreign people who are from low-context culture, though. We should put a lot of effort into getting them to understand our culture, etiquette and religion.
Kyoto is suffering with budget deficits. Many European municipal impose extra fee to transportation to non -locals. Why not Kyoto? Austin is liberal enough to believe that all humans have the same understandings of decency. But nooooo.American Middle Ages are decent when sober.American twenties are tend to eat and drink on the street and take videos without asking. Still Americans are better.Chinese are packed blocking street ,disgrace toilets, and always yelling.Europeans youngsters sit everywhere, even lie down in some temples . As a Kyoto local I do not appreciate foreign visitors.
I have one suggestion. If you could cover the table with a black tablecloth, it would be easier to see the subtitles when they are displayed. What do you think?
Recently, I have been asked how to get to Inokashira-Line in Shibuya. It is pretty match difficult to explain in Japanese, why not in English. I hereby declare that just because I am wearing T-Shirts with MIT or Harvard logos, it does not necessarily mean that I can speak English.
I definitely agree with Austin's opinion about racial profiling. I think people who drink outside in Shibya are not tourists but foreign and local people who live near Tokyo while the problem in Kyoto is actually mainly caused by tourists. So there may be different approaches for it? In addition, local people in Kyoto would consider anyone comes from outside Kyoto as an outsider. Probably they are more familiar with tourists fron foreign countries than domestic tourists.
I think this is ridiculous because if non-Japanese nationals have to pay more, to be fair, Japanese nationals also should be able to prove that they indeed have Japanese nationality. How do they do that? How many percentage of Japanese nationals have passport to prove their nationality?
Japan is not experiencing over tourism. Kyoto has a problem with too many tourists packed into too few spaces. Japan also has a problem with English as a lingua Franca, and they need to change the way it is taught and how it is tested at the university level. But talking about “Japan’s over tourism” isn’t helpful nor is it accurate.
@@theaustinandarthurshow relative to other high tourist destinations, eg france, Spain, California, Vancouver. Japan has a sales problem and that’s that nearly all gaijin tourists come to Kyoto and Tokyo with some in Nara, Hiroshima and Yokohama. But anyone who lives here knows there is so much more and every prefecture has something to offer.
