🪭 Where to Find Old and Modern Japan

When people talk about old Japan, Kyoto is almost always the first city that comes to mind. When the conversation turns to modern Japan, attention immediately shifts to Tokyo.

That logic makes sense, but I think it is easy to see only the two most famous versions of the country and decide that Japan has suddenly become easier to understand.

If you want to feel it more deeply, I would look a little wider. Because old Japan does not end in Kyoto, and modern Japan does not exist only among Tokyo’s skyscrapers, fashion and anime culture.

🏯 Kyoto is worth seeing, but I would not stop there

If someone is visiting Japan for the first time and wants to discover traditional Japanese culture, I really would recommend Kyoto.

The city was Japan’s capital for a long time and has preserved a huge number of historic places and traditions. But Kyoto also has its own regional culture, so I would not want someone to see only this city and decide they now understand all of old Japan.

Japan changes a lot from region to region, and its historical side looks different too.

If Kyoto is already part of your trip, the next place I would choose is the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter in Okayama Prefecture.

During the Edo period, this area was under the direct control of the shogunate and developed as a place through which rice and other local goods were transported. Today, its historic townscape has been preserved, and for me, Kurashiki remains one of the best places to see another side of old Japan.

Not a more famous one.

Just a different one.

🏔 Shirakawa-go and winter without modern heating

Another place is in my home prefecture of Gifu.

It is Shirakawa-go, where traditional houses with thatched roofs have been preserved.

What interests me about this place is not only that the houses look unusual.

Their design helps you understand how people adapted to life in a region with cold, snowy winters long before modern heating existed.

The structure of the roofs helped them withstand heavy snowfall, and the houses themselves were part of a way of life shaped by the conditions of that particular place.

For me, Shirakawa-go shows exactly why old Japan is more interesting to look for not only among famous temples and historic streets.

Sometimes the past is explained much better by a very simple question:

how did people live here every day?

that does not mean it shows all of it. :::

Different regions developed differently, and that is exactly why I find it more interesting not to look for one “main” image of the past, but to compare several places with one another.

🏙 Modern Japan starts with Tokyo, but it does not end there either

If you want to see modern Japan, I would start with Harajuku and Akihabara.

Harajuku is known as a youth district. There, you can observe contemporary fashion, food and the things that are becoming part of youth culture today.

Akihabara is most strongly associated with anime and otaku culture, so for someone interested in Japanese animation, it will probably be especially interesting.

At first glance, this is all fairly expected.

If you want to see modern Japan, you go to Tokyo.

But for me, there is an important continuation to that idea.

🌾 I would also go to the countryside to see modern Japan

Modern Japan is incredibly convenient.

Many processes are automated, technology has become part of everyday life, and the big cities can create the feeling of a country that is constantly moving forward.

But at the same time, a completely different kind of life exists alongside it.

In rural areas, some of which do not even have train connections, there are people who still find old tools and familiar ways of living more convenient.

And this is modern Japan too.

Not a museum of the past and not an attempt to preserve a beautiful image for tourists, but the lives of people who are living this way right now, at the same time as Tokyo, automation and new technologies.

This is exactly the contrast I would want to show someone visiting Japan.

Japan is more interesting when you compare it

I think it is difficult to understand a country through one place.

You can come to Kyoto and see one version of historical Japan.

Then travel to Kurashiki or Shirakawa-go and notice how different history and everyday life can look in another region.

You can walk through Harajuku and Akihabara, and then travel somewhere without a railway where an older way of living still feels like the most practical choice for local people.

For me, the country becomes much more interesting through these transitions.

Old and modern Japan are not located at two opposite ends of the map.

They exist at the same time, sometimes very close to each other.

And if you want to see Japan a little beyond the familiar route, this is exactly the contrast I would look for. 🇯🇵