On Jul 14, 8:29 pm, The 2-Belo <the2b...@msdREMOVETHIS.biglobe.ne.jp>
wrote:
>
> Oh, I know it's real. I've been twisted like a pepper mill on trains during
> business trips to Tokyo more times than I can count. But it's not only the
> native population that largely ignores the sticks... the offshore press does,
> too. I'll see country courses aimed at the backpacker guys time and again, but
> for the most part the image has always been "overcrowded, futuristic".
>
I have this argument quite a bit over on tripadvisor.com. People love
Tokyo. Tokyo is soo cool. Tokyo is so fascinating. Never mind that, if
you want to go to Kamakura, for example, there's a great little trail
from Kita Kamakura that comes in behind the temples; or if you want to
go to Arima Onsen or Kobe, you can scoot up Mt. Rokko and see some
fairly off-the-beaten-path places that are free and definitely
something most tourists will not.

On the show "No Reservations" the host went to Hokkaido and said
essentially the same thing we're saying in this thread, that if he'd
known there was that side of Japan he might have not gone to Tokyo.

John W.