Kyoto Report 2025 – 3

This Tuesday report will provide some insights into life for a westerner (me) who is working for an extended period at Kyoto University in Japan but who over the years of working here has increasingly began to understand the language and local cultural traditions

Growing hostility to tourists in Japan

I was out running early the other morning through the suburb where I live on my way to the river.

It is a northern suburb well away from the Tourist mecca of Gion and Yasaka etc.

The surrounding neighbourhoods are quiet and clean and one rarely sees a tourist walking around there.

Then I came across this sign – and many more like it.

The main sign reads: Opposition to Private Lodging.

I saw some friends for lunch a bit later, one of which lives in the locality too and she explained that it was an Airbnb proposal to take over a building and convert it into short stay accommodation.

I learned that locals are starting to organise to kick these short-stay places out of their neighbourhoods.

The locals feel that the tourism is over the top and disturbing their neighbourhoods.

I took this photo further south on the Kamo river bank closer to the main shopping district, which tells you what the locals are talking about.

The tourist flood, of course, is two-sided.

On the one hand, it is providing employment and wages growth for the cities.

A friend, who works in a Kimono hire shop told me the other day, she has never been busier.

But on the other hand, the tourists often are an assault on the culture and serenity of the neighbourhoods.

I saw two tourists on the train the other day in shorts and singlets, covered in tattoos, talking above the rest of the carriage.

All aspects of that were highly insulting to the other travellers.

That is happening right across the tourist areas in Kyoto.

As an aside, the reason that my swimming club asks about tattoos (reported last week) is mostly due to the – Yakuza exclusion ordinances – which were aimed at ridding Japan of the criminal gangs.

They have been very effective since the first of these laws came into effect in 2010.

The yakusa numbers have shrunk significantly and eventually they will die out.

The Genkan (玄関)

Houses in Japan have an entrance area – Genkan (玄関) which is considered the transitional space between the street (unclean) and the living quarters (clean).

The genkan is designed to be lower than the rest of the flooring inside the house and the step (shikidai 敷台) can keep dirt from blowing in.

The tradition is that people take their shoes off in the genkan and slip on some house slippers to maintain cleanliness in the house and a demonstration of respect for the owner and the building.

Often there is a shoe rack/shelves or a special shoe cupboard (getabako 下駄箱) provided for even neater placement.

There is also usually an umbrella rack and a coat rack in the genkan.

All that is readily understandable and it applies in houses elsewhere including Australia, although our practices are less strict.

This architectural tradition started, it seems, during the Edo period (1603-1868), as a sign that the owners had means or social status.

Lower classes did not have them in their homes – only samurai, aristocrats and high-ranking public officials.

Considerations of cleanliness progressively overtook the social class angle and the genkan became universal.

And, one doesn’t walk around the genkan in one’s socks.

This necessitates a rather strategic dance involving taking one’s shoes off, placing them strategically in the genkan and then hopping into the main house without touching the genkan floor with one’s socks.

But the nuance is that when one takes the outdoor shoes off, they are placed on the genkan floor with the toes facing the door.

Why you might ask?

That is to make the reverse dance easier to accomplish as one can just step straight into the shoe from the upper level.

That is enough for today!

(c) Copyright 2025 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.