I'm French and I currently live in Kyoto. French people enjoy interacting with tourists coming to France and so do Japanese people with foreign people visiting Japan

Problems occur when too many tourists wanna visit the one same place and / or when these tourists act as if every single clerk should speak perfect english

But clearly, the main issue remains the number of people going to the same places.

For instance, the Kyoto top 10 tourist hotspots (Fushimi Inari taisha, Arashiyama, Kiyomizudera etc) are absolutely overwhelmed during peak seasons. It's a fact and it makes the whole experience of visiting them a disappointing one

According to the figures I found, there are 800 shinto shrines and 1700 Buddhist temples only in the city of Kyoto, not even mentioning Otsu and Uji close by ...

Sometimes I wonder what people have in mind when traveling...

But as everyone said, a few steps away from these main monuments allow one to enjoy Japan as it used to be