enda1

Spent 3 weeks there. Nagoya, Kyoto and Tokyo.

I'm talking about the general architecture, the streetscapes. If you like plastic clad buildings, with no conformity of design or appreciation of one structure for its neighbours (including roof height) then you'll love Japan.

Once you've been to one Japanese temple you've been to them all. I've not the biggest fan of these type attractions.

I do like Japanese food though - per se. However if I hear one more nasal sumimaseeennnnn, I'll shoot someone!!

mapleg

Why would you hear sumimasen a lot?

Are you sure it was not the standard greeting at every store/restaurant of irasshaimase (いらっしゃいませ) ?

MrKendall

I'll second that (or third, or fourth, fifth, whatever).

Mr Kendall

BuildingMyBento

So, once you've been to one {insert any one style of a building} here, have you seen them all? If you want to see a more unusual setting for a Japanese shrine/temple, check out the top of a department store. Sometimes, they've got 'em. Or, instead of the religious edifice itself, if you understand why it was built, that might lessen the ennui just a...Tad. (For example, some shrines are built for the safety of a new car) I'm not disagreeing, just giving a lil' background.

Kallio

I can agree that Japanese big cities are rather ugly as a whole. There are plenty of beautiful buildings, structures, and parks but it seems most of them has been designed without paying too much attention to their surroundings. However, it was pretty much what I was expecting before I visited Japan for the first time, so I cannot call it overrated.

enda1

Well I wasn't really looking for an argument but...

I've been to I'd say 10 or 12 shrines and temples in Japan. In Kyoto, I went to the golden one, silver one, one with loads of arches going up a hill (this one was the best), one with a some monkey God or something. I don't remember them all.

My point is that they were underwhelming. They are the biggest tourist attraction in the country (added to Tokyo as a location) and are really not that interesting.

When I travel I like to get in touch with 1. Landscape 2. Way of Life. In my experience of Japan, the landscape has been mostly destroyed. Coastal scenery is not great. Regarding daily life - well that's a complex one. I don't envy the Japanese way of life which I discovereed when I was there. I don't envy the salary-men, nor their bored wives. I don't envy the children and the pressure they are put under. I don't envy the conformity of society. Its a way of life I was underwhelmed with as I felt no desire to join it.

When I visit France I am envious and admire many tenants of life their, similarly for most countries I've visited for various reasons. Not so for Japan.

Oh and on the sumimasen thing - I found the roaring of the word by rude patrons the worst. The way they'll just sit there in a neighbouring table and shout it looking for service. Also the sickly sweet way the serving women say it when you enter or leave. It just grated with me.

mapleg

They are not saying sumimansen, which means sorry or excuse me. That's not what patrons say in a restaurant or pub, nor is it what serving people say when you enter or leave. I am surprised you think that is what they were saying. Sickly sweet? What do you want them to bark it at you?

I realize some people like Japan, and some don't. No crime there if you don't like the place. If you like landscapes, then going to Tokyo, Nagoya (in particular since an industrial city) is not going to help you at all.

There are some very nice parts of Japan but you have to get away from the mega-cities if that is what you are looking for.

bfxfd

The ice bar in Stockholm is an over rated trap. The cost of admission is obscence. There is one beverage provided but if youd like another its going to cost you and arm and a leg.

BuildingMyBento

Two ends of the spectrum, saccharine obsequiousness and barking. Most of the world is neither end, but I get thrown off sometimes by how the Japanese speak too. No doubt it's a cultural issue, but for example, going on a bus in Tokyo, the recordings are always Japanese women talking in a high pitch (meant to be more relaxing than the "gruff" male, I guess), but when it's the bus driver's turn to say something, it's over the top with an emphasis on the word "desu."

RTW1

That's why it's a little silly to count this sort of behaviour as rude... For me it's fasinating to see how almost everything is different in Japan. And it's one of the countries that is, at least on the surface, considered very polite.

That can of course still annoy you. But I save that annoyance for countries that are really lacking in manners. And even there most of it is determined by culture or past experiences.

annihilistic

Definitely Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. After a few minutes, you'll wonder why you wanted to come to Sydney at all.

TheStinger

It's funny because I quite liked it. Now I was a bit mad and walked from the Louvre all the way up to Arc de Triomphe (it didn't look that far away to begin with) and I quite enjoyed the long stroll up there, the traffic bustling away alongside of me and it is only the second half of it that had all the shops on it.

But that's just me I guess.

I was however quite disappointed in the London Eye. I just didn't get it at all. Pay an extortionate amount of money to stand in a queue for two hours and then go on a glorified ferris wheel? No thanks.

richardsmith

Every places of world has unique attractions to visit. People have different choices some people want to explore their own country land and others want in foreign land. So it is difficult to say which is the best destination in the world.

I have visited several time in Udaipur and other part of Rajasthan. For me Udaipur is the world best tourist place because here you will find ancient forts, traditional Indian culture and more.

HangukStyle

The 'Walk of Fame' in Los Angeles is by far the most overrated attraction I've ever been to.

mikem132

I found it pretty good, but only because of the "stars" that were there (if you come up with the 30 grand to buy your own star). Terry Bradshaw has a star. Who knew?