Town to put up screen to fend o tourists
FUJIKAWAGUCHIKO,
JAPAN • The town of Fujikawaguchiko has had enough of tourists.
Known for a number of scenic photo spots that offer a near-perfect shot of Japan’s iconic Mount Fuji, the town on Tuesday began constructing a large black screen on a stretch of a sidewalk to block the view of the mountain. The reason: misbehaving foreign tourists.
“Kawaguchiko is a town built on tourism, and I welcome many visitors, and the town welcomes them too, but there are many things about their manners that are worrying,” said Michie Motomochi, owner of a café serving Japanese sweets “ohagi,” near the soon-to-beblocked photo spot.
Motomochi mentioned littering, crossing the road with busy traffic, ignoring traffic lights and trespassing into private properties. She isn’t unhappy though — 80 per cent of her customers are foreign visitors whose numbers have surged after a pandemic hiatus that kept Japan closed for about two years.
Her neighbourhood suddenly became a popular spot about two years ago, apparently after a photo taken in a particular angle showing Mount Fuji in the background, as if sitting atop a local convenience store, became a social media sensation known as “Mt. Fuji Lawson,” town officials say.
THERE ARE MANY THINGS ABOUT THEIR MANNERS THAT ARE WORRYING.
The mostly foreign tourists have since crowded the small area, triggering a wave of concerns and complaints from residents about visitors blocking the narrow sidewalk, taking photos on the busy road or walking into neighbours’ properties, officials said.
Fujikawaguchiko has tried other methods: signs urging visitors not to run into the road and to use the designated crosswalk in English, Chinese, Thai and Korean, and even hiring a security guard as crowd control. None worked.
The black mesh net, when completed in mid-may, will be 2.5 metres high and 20 metres long, and will almost completely block the view of Mount Fuji, officials said.
Dozens of tourists gathered Tuesday taking photos even though Mount Fuji was not in sight due to cloudy weather.
Helen Pull, a 34-year-old visitor from the U.K., was sympathetic to the local concern. While travelling in Japan in the past few weeks, she has seen tourism “really ramped up here in Japan from what we’ve seen.”