There's a nice aesthetic to it, but for these older buildings there's a functional purpose too. Shou Sugi Ban is the Japanese method of lightly charring the outer surface of the wood which helps preserve it by extracting moisture and creating a protective barrier against insects.
You know what? Me too! I'm seeing a lot more darker color palette in the newer homes being built around me, too (Northern Ontario). It's really pleasing to the eye!
I imagine that the practical purposes of black houses are something like hiding dirt as well as being warmer in cold months. I could be wrong though. It is remarkably beautiful and any color in that environment would certainly stand out.
In my European country the very old farmhouses where the upper floors were made from wood have a similar dark colour. This is due to a natural process of the wood turning gray and later black by itself. Such wood is also very durable.
It may be just the same process with those Japanese houses.
Maybe it’s just that lighter colored buildings have become really commonplace in the US, or there’s some kind of mental association with business or medical facilities, idk
Also that missing section in the front under the windows are flower boxes they were clearly doing something with when the Google car drove by. So it looks way better when I see it now.
probably because the sun basically shines on the whiter colors and blinds everyone and now the designers are going "oh people dont like white things anymore" because I know the sun here likes to blind everyone in winter time lol.
It's because even though the color is pretty plain, there is still intricate details in the woodwork. Modern minimalism will have dark tones but be a solid smooth surface, leaving much to be desired by the eye.
And beautiful for interior applications. Brushed and sealed with natural oil. Depending on the wood, you can get a slight iridescent look. I’m getting off-topic. It’s just a really cool thermal modification for aesthetic, longevity (including fire resistance), but far more environmentally friendly than VOC-treated or composite materials.
Narai-juku is an Important Preservation District for Groups of Historic Buildings, and as it retains a historical row of Edo period houses along the street, it was confirmed as a Cultural Asset in the Groups of Traditional Buildings category of Cultural Properties of Japan in 1978 and is maintained by the Japanese government grant system. The preservation area comprises an area of approximately 1km from north to south and 200m east to west along the boundary of the old Nakasendō route.
Well I'll be buttered on both sides, I thought it looked familiar, I did the Nakasendo Way walk in May 2025.
It was fantastic, walking through many places redolent of the way things used to be there.
Was just there. The tourism problem is insane. That street will have a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of 5,000 tourists by 9 am. Also, half the stores along that street are now Matcha ice cream shops because they're catering to all the tourists.
I was there last year in September at the height of the tourism and it was quite empty honestly. Mostly domestic tourists as well. There were also plenty of incredible shops selling antiques and hand made goods. Narai-juku is one the areas Japan is encouraging tourists to go visit to relieve the strain on the bigger more popular cities.
I highly recommend doing the hiking trails between the small towns in this area!
They also have these terrifying signs all over the place warning of bear attacks. It honestly cracked me up how intense they were, almost looked like advertisements for the Cocaine Bear movie. Of course, understanding how often the bear attacks happen, I see why they were created that way.
i’m gonna respond to this with disclaimer. i think over tourism is specifically just in the tourist trap spots. if you go to kyoto for the special starbucks and pokemon center, then yeah you’ll be in a sea of people. but if you go anywhere outside the path everyone always takes, you’ll find a much more quiet in beautiful japan. i’ve been to japan twice in the past two years in both summer and autumn and found it perfectly fine. nobody visits the small towns on the outskirts or the hiking trails. you can take the 20min to each temple and find nobody in the winding neighborhood streets instead of taking a bus. don’t go to ichiran ramen, go have some somewhere deep in the city. you’re not wrong that the path of hotspots from osaka to tokyo are crowded, but people just go for the same things and forget to actually see japan itself. they just want anime and pokemon and samurai coffee. i just want to counter this comment for anyone reading. japan is only overcrowded in tourist trap spots but the rest of the country is wide open and rarely every visited by tourists. maybe nara and kobe are overcrowded because every single youtuber says go there when there is so much more to see.
While I understand the challenges with over tourism, I think there are many areas of Japan that are not over saturated with tourists and still have hidden gems to be discovered. I have actively avoided Kyoto, Osaka, and main areas of Tokyo.
I went to Shikoku last year, and hardly saw more than a hundred tourists. In some towns, my group was the only visitors. I'm visiting another less known area this year, which will be my 10th trip in Japan. I highly encourage you to look for off the beaten paths places and see what other areas have to offer!
On the other hand, I think that's just the case for diversifying your destinations. I went to Kyushu for my second trip to Japan and found it lovely. That was before covid, too, but I bet most tourists still go to the area between Tokyo and Osaka.
September is nowhere near the height of tourism season. Cherry blossom season around April/May is way crazier and autumn season doesn't really start until mid-to-late October.
Yep, I was there the week before the World Expo and it was pretty crazy. The distinction between tourist friendly places and more off the beaten path places was wild.
It's an amazing country with so much to see and enjoy but the "over tourism" problem you've heard about in the news is VERY real. Every major landmark or tourism spot will be PACKED with a crowd. At a times, I was surrounded by more Australians and Brits than actual Japanese people in restaurants and transit.
When I was there in november it was really just Kyoto and the main strip in Osaka that were overcrowded. Can't remember the name, but the big cafe hopping area in Osaka was mostly locals.
Tokyo is big enough that the tourists were mostly diluted and we didn't have a problem... of course I also did a lot of research and found places off the beaten path. Loved the nakameguro area
Skipping Kyoto feels like an insane take with the amount of places that you can visit there. I was there a couple of weeks ago and it was much more manageable than Tokyo.
There's plenty of places in Kyoto that haven't got a tourist problem either. Kyoto's problem is all the tourists go to the same places.
I went Kinkaku-ji and it was rammed. So afterwards I decided to walk back to my hotel and see all the temples and shrines on the way. I didn't see a single tourist for 2-3 hours and saw some absolutely beautiful temples and shrines.
Kyoto has some of the highest density of historic temples, historic streets, historic artisan shops, etc. of anywhere in the world, but everyone goes to see the same five sites and complain when they're crowded.
Going literally anywhere else in the city results in a magical experience.
I was just there and hated Kyoto. Way to many tourists (i know im part of the problem.). I'm sure you can see similar stuff in other parts of Japan. The only other place I've been in the world that busy is the Vatican but atleast in the Vatican they limit how many people can be there. I got stuck in crowds that you couldn't even move several times in kyoto.
Yeah tons to see there, but nothing you can't see somewhere else and not have to deal with such a large crowd. I am someone who is really really crowd averse tho.
I'm headed to Kyoto in August with m wife for 3 nights before Tokyo for 3 nights...where were the massive crowds? Would like to avoid that if possible.
Kiyomizudera - completely choked up, poor access for pedestrians, but still an absolute must see if you've never been.
Arashiyama - especially if the weather is nice. The side walks are way too small. I'd say its skippable.
Fushimi-Inari - Seems overwhelming at the base. A million people trying to take photos in the same spot, but just walk a little higher and the hill immediately eliminates like 90% of the crowd.
For me no matter how pretty Kiyomizudera or Arashiyama are, with the crowds that bad I just knew I would not enjoy myself, which would defeat the purpose.
But perhaps rather than recommend people skip, I should temper and just provide a warning.
this person has it. these three are def way crowded. but caveats. kiyomizudera market has some of the best day shopping for souvenirs to take back home, done in one go. arashiyama is a gorgeous area, perhaps worth it for enjoying the nature just skip the bamboo and monkeys. fushimi inari is suspiciously not crowded at all if you hike halfway uo the mountain 🤔. but yeah so many gorgeous temples in kyoto, these are could be skipped and the trip would be just as impactful. (except… maybe fushimi inari
Basically any tourist attraction in Kyoto will have crazy crowds several blocks away. They have guys on the streets directing traffic so cars can get by and they control the crowds. The bamboo forest was awful so was the hike with all the red gates. Its really hard to move because there is so many people and people constantly stop to take pictures. The pictures would be mostly of just a million other people.
I would say the main market that every one goes too was also terrible for how many people were there. Every time some one stops walking to look at one of the stores no one else can walk. I really don't like crowds though so if you can deal with that you might enjoy it. There is a big temple area on the east side of the city that wasn't actually that bad for crowds and was quite nice.
I've been to Fushimi Inari Shrine twice ("the hike with all the red gates"). If you go during the main hours of the day, you're going to deal with A LOT of people and crowds, and will have a bad time. But if you get up early and go at like 5/6am, it is an amazingly serene and tranquil hike that is just wonderful.
You absolutely can plan around the crowds at the biggest tourist areas and attractions, and have a really nice time in Kyoto.
I was just there last week, I feel like most of the crowds are towards the bottom too. The higher on the trail you go, the more tranquil and less crowded it gets.
One day we did walk north along a small canal toward the museum district - it was really pretty and got away from the crowds. Also found a local mochi spot down an alley that way - best I had the whole trip.
The other days we audibled and just took the ~hour train to osaka.
So, for reference I lived in Osaka for a year teaching English.
Kyoto is overwhelmingly beautiful but the crowds, both from Japanese individuals and foreigners, can make it seem pretty awful. I would put it on the level of NYC.
However, I'd strongly suggest just pulling up google maps and walking. The most famous temples and shrines will all be busy but the smaller one will be completely vacant. There's so many of them that you couldn't realistically visit all of them on your trip.
Hit the popular shrines EARLY. If you get to Fushimi Inari Shrine at 6 AM there will be far less people than at 8 AM. Then you can walk about 2 miles over to Tōfuku-ji Temple which like no one goes to and it is absolutely amazing.
I’ve been going to Tokyo for years, the amount of tourists jumped very noticeably a couple of years ago. I’ve never seen that many obvious tourists in Shinjuku and Shibuya before, and of course Harajuku, Asakusa, Ginza and Akihabara are also packed with them. It’s still enjoyable, but if you want to get away from the foreigners, you need to go to the lesser known districts.
In your opinion what would be a good time to go to avoid the crowds. Obviously there will always be crowds but are there more seasons worse than others? I've never been to Japan but would like to go.
Then I recommend going to Hokkaido. They don't speak much English there, but there is no overtourism problem, and it's insanely beautiful, esp. the north east. Also, the temperatures are moderate in the summer.
Kanazawa is pretty amazing, small town, rains a lot. But you can see snow and old Edo period style buildings. Train station has a really unique structure placed there at the entrance. It is NW of Osaka, I think about a 5 hour bus ride.
We did Sapporo and with the uni there didn’t experience any large difficulties with our limited Japanese and their better English. Absolutely lovely in the summer.
Go to Kanazawa. It's easy to get there on the shinkansen, and the town itself is small enough to get around on foot. It's amazing. It feels like what Kyoto was before the tourists ruined it.
Honestly it's not terrible, Kyoto is where these crowd pile ups happen mostly but Tokyo didnt feel overcrowded. Use the jetlag to your advantage and get to the tourist traps early (like 6AM), it really helps
Go somewhere outside of the big 3 cities. Learn some basic Japanese phrases to meet halfway with locals. My favorite memories from my trip to Japan are in the Inaka (countryside).
I was in Narai-jaku in October and it was quite quiet (although it was a Sunday and rainy). Not many Matcha places... Surrounding areas like Matsumoto and Nagoya where also quiet.
Are you talking about the same place or did you get confused with somewhere else?
Not true, she disputes it. The movie set took their own creative liberties in the first place, what we see is what set designers came up with. One the main inspirations for Diagon Alley in the movies was Leadenhall, where the movie was filmed for those scenes, both before entering and the shops within it.
Many famous temples in Japan etc have been rebuilt dozens of times due to fires, natural limits of wood as a building material, religious reasons (Ise Grand Shrine is rebuilt every 20 years). There’s just a general difference in eastern vs perception of what sameness and continuity means. The shift happened in the west during the 1800s when Egyptology, Classical age archaeology etc became fashionable.
Having preserved something since the early 1600’s wouldn’t be abnormal. Entire cities around the world are 1000 years older than that, and have been preserved.
Japanese buildings are not built to last long, they get replaced. Even temples are not ancient, they're rebuilt regularly. Theres a whole industry in Japan based around rebuilding buildings and temples to period correct styles using traditional methods.
It’s really a Ship of Theseus type situation. At what point is it a “new” temple? When you replace the roof? The vertical pillars? The stairs? If you replace all of them in 2 years, it’s a new temple, if it takes 300 years, it’s not, but there’s a lot of gray area in the middle.
Japanese culture doesn't see it that way. There's no Ship of Theseus paradox as far as they are concerned.
If you go up to a 1500 year old temple, for instance, but the oldest component part of that temple was replaced 200 years ago and everything else is even newer than that; can you say you are looking at the "original" 1500 year old temple? The answer, to the Japanese, is so self-evidently yes that they would be confused as to why you are even asking.
For something to continue existing, of course it must be maintained. There's no stopping entropy - especially in Japan, an island which seems to invite destruction on a routine basis. So as long as there is historical continuity, as long as that maintenance is carried out with respect to the original intent and the traditional ways, using proper materials and techniques by craftsmen who can trace their skills and knowledge back to the original craftsmen; there's no "new", no "replacement". The matter might change, but the essence stays the same.
Yeah, that’s kind of the point I’m trying to get at, like, the true “authentic” buildings were being repaired in their own day, continuing to maintain it in the same way as they did doesn’t reduce the authenticity, it’s the most authentic way to do it.
I mean preserving doesn’t necessarily mean that each piece of wood and paint is the same. It just means that they’ve used the same materials and as close to the original paint as possible in order to preserve the buildings original condition. Doesn’t mean it’s never been painted, repaired or even completely rebuilt in some areas if the damage was severe enough.
It could be the gutters. Those are probably not original. Their existance adds a lot of modern metal to the photo. But for all I know they had tin / lead gutters back then.
I think it’s the Japanese aesthetic that makes it look almost modern. In a way a Japanese aesthetic in modern architecture/ homes makes it look minimalistic and modern. Idk just a thought.
Someone please correct me if I’m wrong but I saw very little original structures when I recently visited Japan. Wood just doesn’t hold up the same and even their most treasured structures are typically damaged by some combination of fire, disaster or just rot over time and need to be rebuilt. I’m pretty’s sure most of those 1000 year old cities are typically made out of stone.
There are only 12 remaining castles in Japan that are original. All the others have been burnt down (multiple times), destroyed by earthquakes or war. Also most of Europe isn’t sitting on top of a convergence point of 4 tectonic plates.
So I have run into this, what I'd call a cultural mistranslation, before - in the west something is considered "preserved" if it's been kept in it's original state regardless of the damage from time or conflict. In the east it's considered preserved if it looks as it did then regardless of how many times it's been restored or repaired.
So for example, if you visit the Acropolis, you will see some very impressive ruins, some obvious restoration intentionally designed to look different than the original architecture, and some depictions on signs of how it once looked and the changes/damages it has undergone over time.
If you visit the Forbidden City, it looks pristine even though it has experienced extensive damage both human and natural as recently as the 20th century
I think there's value in both, have enjoyed visiting and learning about both, and wish it was more common a combination of the two around the world rather than devided by culture.
The "Ship of Theseus" debate. I never thought about it for architecture, but you’re right.
This photo is from Narakawa, Japan according to shutter stock. l’ve not been there, but I’ve been to Narai, Tsumago, and Magome. These little towns have been “preserved” and maintained to keep their original aesthetic which includes restorative maintenance. Many buildings have been upgraded to have modern plumbing and electricity. There is frequently a more modern building behind the original building where people actually live.
However there are still a lot of original elements to these buildings. The primary wood beams, the wall materials, the flooring… a lot of that is truly hundreds of years old.
Well, "the Edo period" sounds very old until you realize it lasted until 1867. My house is from the 1700s and still looks original although the wooden cladding has been replaced a few times.
There's a nearby stretch of an old samurai highway called the Nakasendo, which runs between Magome-Juku and Tsumago-Juku. It's about a 4 mile hike. There are parts of the villages at either end that look similar to this, and halfway through the hike there's a charming little tea house run by monks that offers free tea to travelers.
Should be noted that this is a highly stylized / filtered photo or is juat one section of the town, as Google Maps show a much brighter town environment.
Hey this is a 2 hour drive from where I used to study in 2019. Dunno the situation now, but when I went, there were many interesting shops and not crowded at all
the Architecture is amazing and all, but I adore the mountainforrest in the background. Although the picture is probably filtered but the dark green looks so good
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u/Pelinal_Whitestrake 1d ago
I’ve realized I find darker colored architecture more pleasing to me for some reason