Unbearably crowded tourist spots

I live in Japan for quite a while and stopped traveling within Japan due to overtourism after hearing more Chinese than Japanese in Otaru and more Spanish than Japanese in Nara. Now that the overseas tourists are missing, exploring Japan is actually fun again, so in recent weeks I strolled through the mildly populated streets of Shirakawa-go, saw the snow monkeys bathing with only 20 other people and took photos of the samurai district in Kanazawa without any other tourists... But what's next?
What have been the most crowded tourist spots in Japan in recent years? Places with so many people that even tourists stopped enjoying them? Places that are perfect to visit now, before Japan opens the borders again...

I�fd look at �gtop 10�h lists. Places that come to mind immediately are:
- Kyoto�fs highlights. Eg I had a wonderful time at Ryoanji last spring :
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2020/04/kyoto-without-tourists-...
Or very nice Hanami at Kiyomizudera and the Torii tunnel at Fushimi Inari nearly for myself
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2020/04/kyoto-without-tourists....

And I had the bamboo grove at Arashiyama without droves of people
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2020/04/arashiyama-without-tour...

Unfortunately at end of April last year I needed to leave. So yeah, take advantage as much as possible to visit these normally overcrowded parts.

Other places that would come to mind:
Himeiji
Miyashima
Nara
Theme parks??
The snow corridor
Hakone
Kamakura
Nikko

Based on my experience, at least Himeji was quite empty in middle of may in 2019 compared to second week in april 2017. At april the queue was already outside the castle entrance (where you enter the main keep i.e about 100-300 meters after you buy the tickets). In may there were no queues at all i.e you were able to walk directly to the top without any traffic jams at stairs etc.

IMHO so far only Fushimi Inari has been the only place were you have to behave at the start like Bill Laimbeer or Dennis Rodman to make room :D. However, crowds are IMHO part of the fun and it is not difficult at all to find empty locations should you wish to do so. For example, even at May the beaches were quite deserted compared to France or Italy; less than 10 persons were on the trails at the mini mountain at Kinosaki onsen. Daigoji temple had few visitors compared to those in Nara. So at least for my mother it was a good experience to first visit a site with huge crowds (Fushimi Inari) and then a site where you are almost alone (Daigoji temple).

BR,
Lauri

Hakone & Alpine Route, these 2 are terribly crowded with tourists in the past, i would put them on top of those famous sights in Kyoto.

USJ with the going to open Super Nintendo World would be a interesting place with just locals as well.

While some places are always crowded, I would consider seasonal crowds. Of course, you have to make sure things are still accessible, but with cherry blossom season coming up, for example, you may want to specifically look into places that are popular for THAT and try to go to some of those places to see if you are lucky enough to enjoy them without much people (or at least get pictures without people).

I will say that the Go To Campaign has restarted, though, and the Shinkansen over the weekend actually had people standing in the aisles, so the window for "not crowded" may be closing, at least on weekends and holidays. If your main issue is just that the crowds include non-Japanese, as long as the borders are closed, you should be able to enjoy travel with less non-Japanese around (although I personally have still noticed quite a lot of non-Japanese at tourist destinations).

USJ and Tokyo Disney (and especially Tokyo Disney) have a lot more Japanese tourists than foreign tourists even pre-Covid. There is a Shanghai and a Hong Kong Disney already, so I suspect that impacts the number of foreigners as well. I went in February 2020 and I think it was the last week end it was open before Covid closed many things. Disney Sea was packed and I think everyone there outside us was Japanese. It was the most crowded place I visited in February 2020 by a lot.

USJ also seems to be mostly Japanese tourists, at least the times I've visited, so I would think closed borders are not affecting it as much.

I would put Fushimi Inari as the #1 place. I went super early in the morning in June 2019 and even then we were not alone. I could get pictures that made it look like we were alone, but it still had a lot of noise and tourists.

Kinkakuji was super crowded and I think had a lot of foreign tourists when I was there Summer 2016.

Takayama seems super popular with foreign tourists, though when we went to Hida no Sato it was very empty.

Maybe Nishiki Market in Kyoto and Dotonbori in Osaka?

Shiga Kogen wasn't crowded in February 2020, but there were a lot of Australian tourists when I was there.

I've not been but based on how many people have it on their list, I would suspect Naoshima is a better place to visit now.

Good luck!

For the OP, you might be interested to know that the VAST majority of tourists in Japan contributing to over tourism are actually Japanese. It might be that they do not stand out as much as foreign faces and accents. For Kyoto's 52 million annual visitors (pre-covid) only 12 million or so were from overseas (as an example). As for somewhere like Nara, over-run by Japanese on bus trips and school excursions.
For somewhere like Kanazawa, I see hordes of Japanese visiting, especially from Tokyo and the difference is the shinkansen line (easy access). I recall my visits there before the service was extended from Nagoya and it was very very quiet.
These days, Japanese people are not travelling as much (from my observation and recent trips), but there are still millions that wish to - just their destinations are different.

I enjoy dining at the most popular and gorgeous restaurants you'd usually have trouble just making reservations if it weren't for the pandemic.

Now these restaurants offer you huge space with only you as the customer - very safe pandemic-wise. Of course, it's going to cost you, but you're not spending money for partying and traveling so why not?

I would follow the "moku-shoku" (dining silently) manner, and once I'm done with dessert, I would put my mask back on to chat with the sommelier who may not be able to accommodate you as much in ordinary circumstances. It's also a great opportunity to learn more about some history and culture regarding the establishment!

Uco's restaurant tip also reminded me that now is a good time to try and book onsen and ryokan that are usually difficult/impossible to book. I am not the type of traveler to really stay at such places, but I did look into some over the New Years holiday and many were still available that normally would require months in advance reservation, especially for a big vacation time like the New Years holiday. If you are interested in that sort of thing or there are hotels/ryokan/onsen that you've tried or wanted to book but never could, this is probably the best time to try.

Awesome, thank you so much, everyone!
I'm quite familiar with mainland Kansai (Kyoto, Himeji, ...), but I'll definitely keep an eye on Hakone, the snow corridor and probably the art islands. I guess most tourists don't make it past Hiroshima as nobody mentioned Kyushu or Yamaguchi.

If you need a Kyushu mention, I visited Kagoshima back in October for a few days, and yes there were tourists (domestic) at some of the places I visited, but certainly less than usual - the hotel we used was pretty quiet, but there were probably still around 100 people on the flight. I do not usually see too many foreign visitors there - some more in northern Kyushu spots like Nagasaki or Beppu for example.
BTW, if you want to see how few (or many) people come from a particular country, there are datasets available at https://www.tourism.jp/en/tourism-database/stats/inbound/ (there is an excel spreadsheet you can check). Certainly Korea, China and Taiwan make up the bulk of visitors, but by the time you get to Spain (because Spanish was mentioned above) you quickly drop to about 10,000 per month out of the 2M+/month total going back to 2019 before covid put the brakes on everything. (I could add in some other Spanish speaking countries, but the numbers remain small).

Ohhh I did find many spanish, korean and chinese tourists when I went to Japan, especially chinese (and my encounter with them was not that pleasant, in fact, they were kinda rude with me for 2/3 ocasions).

I don't find Hiroshima that packed with tourists. When I went there 2 and half years ago, I saw more Japanese school trips and Japanese tours with guides than foreign tourists (they were filming something close to the Memorial that day, there were lots of reporters).

Miyajima, it really depends on the area you are. If you plan to visit Itsukushima shrine then it is packed with tourists, but if you plan to explore the park and hike up, then it is fairly deserted.

I also found Okayama peaceful. The famous garden Korakuen was very quiet (just Japanese tourists when I went there, but only a few/I was alone in some areas). The grounds around the castle were peaceful too.

For me the most crowded places were Osaka and Kyoto when I traveled through Kansai. Osaka is mostly workers and school kids. But Kyoto is terribly crowded on a whole different level. Just too many people from foreign tourists to tours to school trips to everything. Nishiki Market is horribly crowded (I almost broke my Canon camera twice), Kiyomizudera and Higashiyama as well. Kinkaku-ji is super crowded as well (Ginkaku-ji not so much but you will find some crowds).

The thing with Kyoto is seasonality, at least for me, as I went there during the Fall colors. However, you can find some quiet and peaceful stops without much people such as the Philosopher's Path (I felt at peace when I walked there) and there are parts of Arashiyama (except the Bamboo groove) where you'll find few crowds.

As for Fushimi Inari Taisha, it really depends on the hours. I woke around 6am and went there straight away (I stayed in a ryokan at Inari, so I walked up there). There were some people, but it was fine. I took many cool pictures as if I were the only one walking through the torii. But by the time I left, I saw manyyyyy people arriving at the train station to go there (I thought I was pretty lucky!).

As for other places, Himeji is fairly peaceful, even the castle was not overcrowded when I went there. Uji is extremely peaceful too. As for Nara...well, too many school kids and too many deer, so not that peaceful xD. Also, I found Mt. Koya very spiritual and quiet. I went there at the peak of the Fall foliage but it was very nice. There were people, but not crowds. It is one of my top destinations in Japan (at least, from those I've been before).

For me there's a distinction between 'busy' and 'crowded'.

We went to the old Tsukuji market a couple of years ago at New Year, it was packed with locals, but lively, enjoyable and fun. We went to Ryoanji and Kinkakuji in 2017 and they were impossibly crowded with (other foreign) tourists, most notably a Chinese gentleman whose speciality was elbowing people out of the way, literally, while simultaneously saying 'sumimasen'.

Similarly, Himeji was crowded but fun, and Higashiyama was horrible.

Once you're off the beaten track even a little the crowds thin out. We had a morning in Kyoto in March 2018, which accidentally coincided with the early sakura season. Around the station, it was packed, but we wandered up to Sanjusangendo and then out further and it was peaceful and just delightful.

Chances are if you're looking at mainstream tourist sites, others will also be interested.