Make Believe Bonus: Hot Takes 2023

Sorry, You Have To Pay For Negativity

• I found myself on a reporting trip to Toyama Prefecture in July, the sort of work assignment you dream of as a freelancer. I spent three days learning about craftsmanship, experiencing glass blowing, and generally enjoying the charms of the area. It was also a chance to link up with a variety of legit travel writers based in Japan — some as writers, others working within the industry — to shoot the shit about the state of inbound tourism post pandemic.
  
  While standing in front of Toyama city’s famous Kansui Park Starbucks store, our conversation turned towards one of the longest-running dilemmas facing travel in Japan…how do you get all these tourists to go somewhere outside of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto? That was why we were even standing in front of this postcard-ready coffee outlet, because Toyama wanted to try to attract some of that massive inflow of visitors to its region. The conversation turned to what places could possibly draw people, despite being far flung.
  
  Ever the stinker, I asked “what about Morioka? The New York Times called it one of the top 50 places to visit in the world.” This elicited an honest-to-goodness groan, the kind both exhausted and angry.