Westerns traveling to Japan because of Anime

Having traveled to Japan, Japanese tend to ask westerns what do you like about Japan or what made you come to Japan to visit. Yes, there are a lot of Anime fans that have traveled to Japan because of Anime. So, when a western says, I like Japanese because of anime or I traveled to Japan because of Anime.

I am very curious about how Japanese citizens think or feel about meeting westerns that travel to Japan solely because of Anime.

Thank you in advance

Now days, it's not that unusual to hear about foreigners coming to Japan for anime.

But for Japanese who have never been to other countries (like I was for the first 14 years of my life), it can be surprising to hear that people come to Japan solely for anime. Because Japanese kids grow up with anime/manga, reading and watching everyday, they think nothing special about it. They probably think, like I thought, that other countries should have something similar or better. Then when they step out of Japan for the first time, they realize that is not the case.

I think the most common reaction nowadays is "Oh, you're one of them."

A couple of decades ago, there was more of a gap. Foreign anime/manga fans seemed to think that Japan is all about anime/manga, while very few Japanese people were not as fanatic. Or at least, the Japanese fan base was quite different from foreign fan base.

Nowadays, even young foreign tourists seem to understand that there are a lot to see in Japan then anime/manga. Meanwhile, the Japanese anime/manga fan base has gotten bigger as well.

A lot of people from around the world have been travelling to Liverpool just for the Beatles, so it's nothing too unusual.

I think that japanese as a people have gotten use to it.

No one cares.
It is wonder who bother comes to see
only temples, shrines or flowers(except Sakura) if young.
(except students for research work)

Any countries big JP Anime fans have to travel to Japan more if really loving.
http://anime-tourism.com/cgi-bin/map.cgi
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/pdf/index.html

Bought the ticket for next weekend?
https://www.anime-japan.jp/en/

Remember there are also a lot of domestic anime tourists as well. Plenty of Japanese fans will go to the different locations of their favorite anime.

As a westerner who is a big fan of Asian culture and anime as well, I�fm not going to act like anime did not play a role, anime did play a small role to get me to travel to japan a little more. Having said that, thank God I didn't travel to Japan believing that what I saw on anime would be the same in Japan. Why? because, there was no lonely hopeless women waiting for a sweet caring guy to sweep her off her feet while your traveling around, (ha ha ha).

Western's who are otaku anime fans that travel to Japan can easily fool their self by believing Japan life is like anime only if the anime fan watch a lot of anime that follows a character life like K-ON!, Tamayura – Hitotose, or Hida Takayama are just some example. I'm not talking about action type anime.

I would like to say thank you to a YouTuber, years ago before I travel to Japan, this person post a comment saying something like (paraphrasing) "you people believe that japan is like what you see on anime, well its not."

my travel experience in japan was great, I got to see lot, eat a lot and met some really cool people who lived out there.