Influencers and litterers mar boom in tourism
The Guardian Weekly|February 16, 2024
At the height of the pandemic, the restaurateurs and shopkeepers of Tsukiji market in Tokyo must have dreamed of days like these. Columns of visitors shuffle along the narrow streets, pausing to inspect hand-forged kitchen knives and tsukemono pickles, and to sip gratis samples of green tea. Restaurants tempt the crowd with sticks of grilled wagyu and boiled crab legs.
Justin McCurry 
Influencers and litterers mar boom in tourism

But signs in English implore Tsukiji's multinational clientele not to eat outside storefronts or leave litter behind. Here, as in many other popular destinations around the world, booming tourism is a double-edged sword.

A year after Japan lifted Covid travel restrictions, foreign visitors are back in force, drawn by a weak yen, worldbeating cuisine and the promise of a holiday of a lifetime in a country once considered a tourism backwater.

"Everything is cheap, the service is incredible, and the food is the best you're going to have, and at a fraction of the price you'd pay in America," said Tommy Buchheit, an American visiting Japan for the first time.

This story is from the February 16, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the February 16, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM THE GUARDIAN WEEKLYView All
Votes of confidence
The Guardian Weekly

Votes of confidence

From India to Venezuela and Senegal to the US, more people voted this year than ever before, with over 80 elections across the world. With rising authoritarianism and citizen-led resistance revealing its vulnerabilities and resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges, has democracy reached its breaking or turning point?

time-read
8 mins  |
December 20, 2024
Out of touch How president sealed his own fate in martial law gambit
The Guardian Weekly

Out of touch How president sealed his own fate in martial law gambit

For Yoon Suk Yeol, this month's short-lived martial law declaration wasn't just a catastrophic miscalculation - it was the culmination of a presidency that had been troubled from the start.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 20, 2024
Son of the soil Who is François Bayrou, the farmer turned prime minister?
The Guardian Weekly

Son of the soil Who is François Bayrou, the farmer turned prime minister?

François Bayrou, the new French prime minister, calls himself a country man. A tractor-driving \"son of the soil\" and breeder of thoroughbreds, he has run for president three times, saying his rural roots and centrist politics led him to try to find common ground between left and right.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 20, 2024
Power plant workers keeping the lights on
The Guardian Weekly

Power plant workers keeping the lights on

The Guardian Weekly visits a Soviet-era coal-fired thermal installation to learn how it has held up to Russian attacks

time-read
3 mins  |
December 20, 2024
Prince charmed Alleged spy scandal may have exposed China threat
The Guardian Weekly

Prince charmed Alleged spy scandal may have exposed China threat

Prince Andrew should be commended for doing Britain a great service, according to longstanding China watcher Charles Parton. The now marginalised royal has, the analyst observed, \"almost single handedly\" succeeded \"in highlighting the threat to free and open countries\" posed by the contemporary Chinese state.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 20, 2024
In Moscow, a new life of secluded irrelevance awaits Assad
The Guardian Weekly

In Moscow, a new life of secluded irrelevance awaits Assad

He was whisked away without a last message to his people, the aircraft's transponder deliberately switched off to avoid detection as it departed from an airbase in Syria.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 20, 2024
'We fear new oppression' Alawites worry over rebel rule
The Guardian Weekly

'We fear new oppression' Alawites worry over rebel rule

To prepare khubeiza, the leaves of the kale-like plant must be roughly chopped and sauteed with onions, garlic and a dash of salt. According to folklore, the recipe originated among the Alawite communities who lived in Syria's mountainous coastline where the fibrous, wild-growing plant can be found in abundance. So poor were the Alawites in Ottoman times, the story goes, that the only food they could find to eat was khubeiza, which sprouts like a stubborn weed every spring.

time-read
3 mins  |
December 20, 2024
'Gisèle is waiting for explanations'
The Guardian Weekly

'Gisèle is waiting for explanations'

The Pelicot rape trial has horrified the world. But as it comes to an end, the questions it has raised about French society and rape culture have still not been answered.

time-read
10 mins  |
December 20, 2024
FROM DOCTOR TO BRUTAL DICTATOR THE RISE AND FALL OF ASSAD
The Guardian Weekly

FROM DOCTOR TO BRUTAL DICTATOR THE RISE AND FALL OF ASSAD

0N THE FACE OF IT AT LEAST, the Bashar al-Assad of 2002 presented a starkly different figure from the brutal autocrat he would become, presiding over a fragile state founded on torture, imprisonment and industrial murder.

time-read
5 mins  |
December 13, 2024
What fresh alternatives can be used to placate coriander haters?
The Guardian Weekly

What fresh alternatives can be used to placate coriander haters?

Everyone knows a hater of coriander - also known as cilantro - who won't go near the stuff. Itamar Srulovich, however, is not one: \"I adore fresh coriander, and always have,\" says the chef/co-owner of the Honey & Co group in London.

time-read
2 mins  |
December 13, 2024