No city in Japan is more symbolic of overtourism these days than Kyoto, so is the travel downturn from China having a noticeable effect?

In mid-November, the Chinese government issued an advisory to its citizens calling on them to refrain from traveling to Japan. The statement came following remarks from Japanese prime minster Sanae Takaichi regarding whether Japan would see a Chinese invasion of Taiwan as a threat to itself as well, and whether Japan would feel justified taking military action in such a scenario.

Chinese tourists make up the largest demographic of inbound visitors to Japan, with many of them cancelling their travel plans, there’s been a lot of talk about how the diplomatic disagreement is going to affect Japan’s major sightseeing destinations. We recently hopped on over to Tokyo’s Asakusa neighborhood to see how it’s been affected, but the biggest question has been what’s going to happen in Kyoto.

In recent years, there’s been a growing perception that Kyoto has become so popular with foreign tourists that it often feels like they outnumber Japanese sightseers at the city’s most famous temples, shrines, and shopping districts, so much so that many domestic travelers are choosing to go elsewhere on their vacations. So with a sudden drop in Chinese tourist numbers, does Kyoto feel like a ghost town? That’s what our Japanese-language reporter Haruka Takagi, who lives in Japan’s central Kansai region but not in Kyoto, wanted to know, so she headed to Kyoto to find out.

Haruka started her spot check at the Gion Shotengai, the shopping street that stretches east from the Gion Shijo train station and leads into the heart of the historical Gion geisha district. The street is lined with souvenir shops and restaurants, and the crowds weren’t small at all when Haruka stopped by, even though it was a weekday. The sidewalks weren’t packed solid, but the pedestrian mass was dense enough that she needed to moderate her walking pace depending on the person in front of her, as there wasn’t enough space to go around them.

She was surprised, though, that about half the people on the street were Japanese, a more even ration than one would expect these days in Kyoto’s tourist spots. Among the non-Japanese travelers, she saw and heard a broad mix of nationalities, with no one region or country seeming to be making up a predominant proportion.

However, the crowds did get suddenly sparse when she arrived at Hanamikoji Street.

This classically styled street runs through a part of the neighborhood that’s been the focus of many overtourism discussions in recent years. A number of geisha houses and private reception venues are located in the area, and crowds of tourists swarming the streets and invasively snapping photos have made it difficult for geisha to go about their business and, many say, tarnished the charm of the district.

While there were still tourists milling about on the day Haruka visited, the crowds weren’t anywhere near what have been shown on TV news reports about the area, and automobile traffic was flowing easily too. Curious as to whether this is a recent change back towards tranquility, Haruka asked a security guard who was out on the street, and he told her:

“Yes, there’s no question that the number of tourists has gone down recently. There are usually a lot of Chinese tourists who come here, but with all the things that have been going on with the Chinese and Japanese government, I think they don’t feel like they should be visiting.”

Turning her steps towards Kiyomizu Temple, one of Kyoto’s most famous landmarks, Haruka walked along the cobblestone Nene no Michi, or Nene’s Street, and also found it comfortably uncrowded, to a surprising extent.

She even began to wonder if these quiet conditions would continue at Kiyomizu Temple itself…only to quickly find out that, no, they would not.

As she drew close to Kiyomizuzaka, the slope that leads up to the temple and has traveler-oriented shops and eating establishments on both sides, the crowds quickly became gigantic. The ratio of domestic Japanese tourists also swiftly dropped, with foreign visitors now making up a much larger percentage. Eyeballing the crowd, Haruka felt like there were maybe slightly more travelers from Asian nations than other regions, but again, she saw travelers from all over the world here.

Taking a peak at Kiyomizu’s parking area for tour buses further showed that the temple and neighborhood aren’t exactly hurting for visitors right now.

Speaking of transportation methods, tourists, and pain, as Haruka was making her way back down into town she saw something that left a bad taste in her mouth. While there are tons of pedestrians that walk along Kiyomizuzaka, the street has car traffic too. Because it’s a narrow street, the cars don’t move that quickly, but many Haruka saw many tourists taking that slow pace as a free pass to cross the street in front of cars whenever they felt like add, creating even more congestion and prompting taxi drivers to blare on their horns when their path was suddenly blocked. It was, in Haruka’s words, “hell.”

Back closer to the city center, Haruka made Nishiki Market her next stop. Nishiki earned the nickname “Kyoto’s kitchen” because of its many stalls selling produce, fish, meat, and other groceries, but it’s also become a popular spot with tourists wanting to get a look at, and taste of, Japanese cuisine.

Even though it was a weekend evening, there were a lot of people here, and almost all of them were international tourists. In addition to the size of the crowds, Haruka was surprised by a change she noticed in what the market’s shops were offering. A decade or so ago, even though Nishiki had already become popular with tourists, there were still a lot of places selling things like fresh vegetables and pre-made staple side dishes that a typical Japanese family might eat in their home. Now, though, there’s been a noticeable shift towards fancier, flashier foods like sushi with high-end types of seafood or wagyu beef skewers with sea urchin or caviar spread across them, Haruka reports. Nowadays, the place feels a lot less like Kyoto’s kitchen than it does a tourist snack spot.

If you keep following Nishiki Market down its south-side end, you’ll end up on the main street of Shijo, which is the most developed part of Kyoto and where you’ll find a lot of its big-name department stores and shopping centers. The sidewalks were packed here too, with forward progress coming at a very slow pace, and Haruka saw open irritation on the faces of some people who were apparently trying to get to somewhere in a more timely fashion.

She also saw that the infamously long lines for Kyoto’s city buses, which both locals and tourists have a high demand for seats on, are still a thing.

All in all, Haruka feels like the tourists crowds are probably a little smaller since the start of the Chinese government’s advisory for citizens to not travel to Japan. On the other hand, Kyoto still remains a very popular destination among the total group of foreign tourists Japan is receiving. Even if it’s less crowded than it was a few weeks or months ago, Kyoto is still much more crowded than it was a few years ago.

Because of that, the downtick in Chinese tourism isn’t going to cripple Kyoto’s tourism economy or resolve its overtourism concerns, meaning that if anyone who is putting the city on their travel itinerary should still be prepared for crowded conditions and stay conscious about being considerate and respectful while seeing the sights.

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