Take a break: etiquettes about visiting small towns

JR Samegai station. Photo taken by me in November 2022. Samegai is a small Nakasendo inn town in Maibara city.

On my blog, small towns and villages are being featured. It is tempting to let many people know your discoveries(and my discoveries too!). 
But when you look at these small towns and villages, you will soon notice that accommodations are limited, the access is oftentimes limited, and there is limited information in other languages other than English. 

You will be able to find all the basics of etiquettes online, and probably even Chat GPT can give you some clues. 

From my experience, here are some things to know:
1. Never visit with large groups. This will easily overwhelm the capacity of small places. If you do visit with others, limit the number of your group, or at least divide the group into small groups, like 4-5 people, and arrange schedule so that multiple groups will not visit the same place at the same time, in same hours. 
2. Information in other languages is limited. And do not expect your smartphone interpreter is perfect. Even with advanced AI technology, I still see wrong or inappropriate interpretations. Expect that there will be miscommunications if you don’t speak Japanese well. 
3. Prepare yourself with survival-level Japanese at least. Very few speak other languages. 
4. Do not enter properties without permission. This should be a common sense. But comparing to big cities, rural areas have wide-open spaces with very little eyesights of others. But this does not mean that you are allowed to take advantage of the situation. You could receive fine or get prosecuted in the worst case scenario. 
5. Do as much research as you can before visiting - access, timetables, locations, local food, local culture, local history etc. 
6. Bring cash. Some of establishments do not still accept credit cards although more shops/restaurants/inns are accepting VISA, Mastercard, Amex, Paypay, Alipay etc. 
7. Seek help from locals if possible: guide(on-site or prior visit), advise before visiting. 
8. Do not buy SNS influencers’ or Tiktokers’ quick videos so much. Along old highways, there are plenty of small towns and villages that you would discover so much to see in. 

I am sure that you will find longer lists from other websites and videos. But the most important thing is that you will enjoy the visit, and the locals will enjoy your visit as well.

Here I present an example. 
Photo on the right: Kameyama Shachu Memorial Museum in Nagasaki city. Kameyama Shachu was the first trading company established by Ryoma Sakamoto(1836-1867). The museum is located in a quiet neighborhood of southeastern Nagasaki city, and it’s very small. They have a leaflet in English but all displays and infos are in Japanese only. In order to fully enjoy the exhibitions, you will need to learn history of Japan in 1800s before your visit, including the life of Ryoma. Otherwise you will have very little clues about what are on the displays. 

I hope this helps you enjoy visits. 




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