What is it about Japan that people find even small empty towns like this fascinating?

PS: I include my self here. Just spent looking at pictures of around Okutama. Very beautiful.

My friends and family like to joke about "anywhere USA." There are places all across the US where the same design language, chain restaurants, etc are all the same. There will be some differences in local business and in political/religious signage, but otherwise, they are cookie cutter, somehow feeling basically the same from Anchorage AK to Tampa FL. Importantly, these are all connected by car line.

I think there are a few things that make Japan fascinating to anyone who lives in a car-oriented culture, and a very important aspect is that even the small, out of the way, rural towns are still connected via passenger train, which changes the relationship of the small town to the central hub in important ways like what's described in the article here. Getting off the train in a small town is very different than getting out of your car in a small town.

You can find this same dynamic in the US, btw. You'll find that old rural towns, that grow up connected to the central hubs by either boat or by passenger train, have a lot of the same charm and feel. But if things are developed along roads, there's no presumption about walkability: they are designed for people to get in their cars and go from one parking lot to another.

Anyway, I'm actually totally clueless about this and speculating with very little informed knowledge outside my lived experience. I should probably delete this comment.

> even the small, out of the way, rural towns are still connected via passenger train

As someone who lives in one such place: no, they are not connected by train. Here in Aomori you can't go anywhere without a car. The whole prefecture is how you describe the US.

Thank you for that context. I had a feeling something like that would be the case. I suppose it would be more correct to be talking about the "idea" of Japan as it is seen by the US. There is probably a similar charm to NYC or Montana cattle-land or whatever as it is perceived abroad. Not exactly incorrect, but also not really an accurate representative of the whole, even if narrowed to "just NYC" or "just Montana cattle-country" parts of it.

Japan has some awesome public transit but at the end of the day, people talk about Japan as if it was just Tokyo. A non-American who has only visited NYC or Chicago might think that America as a whole had good decent public transit.

I’ve been to Japan 4 times and have driven in 25 US states. Rural areas just tend to be car dominated. A few towns have charm but most are just where regular people work and live.

I wonder if it's because of watching anime as a kid. I even love the look of Japanese alleys with lots of wires hanging above. I'm pretty sure it's because it was a common sight in anime that was different from my lived reality.

I have often wondered about this as well. I think the answer is, where else are you going to find a very small town, in the mountains, on a passenger rail line? For good measure throw in extensive local history (including historic sites), modern internet and cellular coverage, and maybe also some onsen.

Certainly there are a few to be had but (my impression) pretty much none in North America. Probably some places in Switzerland and Austria that tick most of those boxes which people seem to find similarly fascinating.

Orientalism / exoticism.

I live in a small decaying Japanese city and there is nothing fascinating about it. With a few exceptions, most Japanese cities and towns are really ugly.

There are a lot of small decaying cities in the US, and I find them fascinating. When I travel (which is frequent) I avoid major highways just so I can see more of them. It's not country-specific and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this.

Japan is beautiful, that's why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR_Y0XOin8Y

Eh, you see the same kind of romanticism about the French, Italian, Greek, Swiss countryside, to list just a few.

It’s more so that US small towns are deeply uninteresting since many have been hollowed out to have the same chains. Japan has followed the opposite model and promotes obscure regional specialties like an obsession.

Does it? Even in this article you see that Japan is dominated by a bunch of big chains. Even in a small sleepy town you find a 7-11 open all night, few other well known convenience stores, a big chain gym, a popular hotel chain as well as a nation wide karaoke parlour chain.

are there chains? sure. but there are also tons of local small businesses and government initiatives like the roadside stations (https://www.japan.travel/en/guide/michi-no-eki/) to promote regional specialty. they're not present in this article because they're generally not open 24 hours, which is the focus of the article.

Here in Washington state a lot of the small towns don't have a whole lot of small businesses outside of super tourist oriented towns.

I strongly disagree.

I am an European guy living in the inaka (Japanese countryside), and to me small Japanese cities and towns look like small US towns: a few big box stores here and there, a bunch of konbinis around the corner, and a million houses scattered around in awful urban sprawl.

Also, michinoeki are cool the first few times, but afterwards they are all the same: a bit of local produce, and the usual assortment of locally-branded senbei / ramen / printed cookies.

Hahaha I thought of this immediately when I saw the article title. I fell asleep on the train a few times and ended up in Ome or Okutama when I was living in Tokyo after a long night out. Ironically Okutama was/is still one of the most beautiful areas I have ever been, did a ton of drives out to that area to go explore the mountains

I do hope somebody has made a movie, or written a novel, or started a band -- or, ideally, all three -- called 煩悩の光 .