Hello guys, welcome back to another

video. How is everybody doing tonight?

I'm in Shinjuku and actually I want to

talk about a topic while I'm walking in

this area. Hope you enjoy the video.

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if you are new here and check out our

Smiley Walk tours if you're coming to

Japan.

So

recently there have been a lot of news

and discussions about traveling to Japan

and how things might change in the

coming years.

So I just wanted to share my personal

observation about traveling to Japan in

2026

and how it feels when you actually walk

in Tokyo today.

By the way, right now is like a off

season in Tokyo in Japan and there are

less travelers, but still a lot of

places are, you know, crowded.

This is not a news report or this is

just uh what I see and feel from living

and walking here. By the way, I've been

living in Japan for more than 10 years

now. And this is just my observation

because I have explored many areas in

Japan and I can, you know.

Yeah, sorry. All right.

Yeah, Japan still is one of the most

popular countries in the world to visit

and every year more people bought uh

more people put Japan on their travel

list

and yeah, people come here for many

reasons. for Japanese food, for safety,

for public transportation, for anime,

culture, temple, city life, night life,

like in here, Kawukicho.

So, especially Tokyo feels like a dream

for many uh travelers, but traveling to

Japan in 2026 doesn't feel exactly the

same as uh it was before.

I mean, it's it's not worse. It's not

better. It's just different.

This is the catch area, by the way.

It's Yeah. And right now it's a bit

early, but usually this area is crazy at

late night. Now it's just

uh very early evening.

Over the last few years, Japan uh became

actually extremely popular. Before Japan

was popular mainly mainly among like

Asia and other western traveler but now

people from everywhere want to come to

Japan and especially last last year I

think Japan they had the maximum number

of travelers.

Yeah. And Japan reached the

record

numbers of foreigner visitors

and the airports, train, hotels and uh

cities becomes very busy.

It seems they had a event or something

today here.

But on the other side actually Japan

handled this gross

surprisingly well. As you guys know,

Japan is really doing well at organizing

like a crowded area. Like for example,

we have seen like a Halloween in Shiva

and like things that happen in Korea,

the Halloween and well here Japan I

think does really well in terms of you

know dealing with crowd and uh stuff. So

this why I think uh Japan is changing.

I'm going to explain in a little

By the way, yeah, even though with the

with the mouse,

you know, the crowded time we had this

year, most of trains are still on time.

Cities are still clean. Yeah, you can

see sometimes Kabuki Cho in some area is

dirty only for a few hours, but only for

a few hours. It's not like a

you know you don't see that dirtiness

for a long time

and also still is very safe even you

know Japanese Tokyo Tokyo is the most

crowded city in the world but the street

is really safe.

You can feel it by yourself. You can

just walk at midnight anywhere. The only

thing you have to be careful is when you

especially the nightlife area there are

a lot of catchers. You should not trust

and follow them and there are some they

are a lot of them they are pushy.

You should not you have to do your own

research. You have to check it online.

If you want to go somewhere make sure

you check it online. Don't follow

anyone.

This is a this this street is Sakuri is

the

uh maybe Kapu Kabuko's second popular

street with a lot of hidden bars and

nightlife spots and in front of us is

just

Yeah, this is

Yeah, that's the I love Kabuko sign.

And

yeah, we are also doing a tour guide in

Kabuko. We we were doing tour guide in

many places in Tokyo, also in Japan. But

one of them that is pretty popular is in

here, Kabuki. We show you the night

life. We go you we go with you to three

different bars.

It's fun. You can check them out at

Smiley Walk. All right. Yeah,

but like I said, uh when

uh Japan is super popular now and when a

country becomes this popular, I think

things naturally begin to change to

shift. So in 2026, I think traveling to

Japan feels more organized and

structured. I would say that's the

change that we're going to see more

organized and structured.

Also, of course, hotels are more

expensive than before. Prices are going

to more get more expensive. Taxes are

going to go higher even now they are

already set high. And it's going to be

more expensive everything in general.

And also uh one another one more

important point is back then a few years

ago it wasn't necessary to book or

reserve a place before you go in like a

restaurant or a shop or something you

want to go but now that's very important

especially during this uh crowded

season. You have to make sure you book

it online you reserve it otherwise for a

simple lunch or dinner you might get in

trouble. You might wait in the line or

you might end up going to like some

other side places to find a place to

eat.

>> Yeah, this sign is very

popular.

I love Kawagu sign

and there are many bars in this area.

Oh yeah, by the way also popular places

are busy almost every day these days. I

mean even the offseason like places like

Kabuko, Shibuya, Shinjuku,

uh Akiawara are almost every day

crowded.

So in Japan the tourism is not going to

you know uh

stop or is not going to be limited. No

actually they want even more traveler

because they are it's big part of

Japan's economy now but they want to

just organize it. This way you can see a

lot of filters. Now they are making a

lot of filters like about visa uh taxes

and also I know things are getting

expensive just to slow things down not

to stop it.

So Japan is not closing its stores.

Japan is not pushing people away. It's

just adjusting to you know uh to handle

the crowd more effectively.

So here for example in Kabuk show you

walk in this area you see a lot of

tourists you see a lot of locals

people walk smoothly there they avoid

each other naturally they follow the

invisible rules the manner so it's is a

cool thing you know a lot of traveler

come to Japan they they feel oh them

because it's super crowded 38 million

people they feel they might see like a

chaos or other stuff. But no, they get

surprised how well organized it is.

Everything is looks controlled.

>> Yeah, Tokyo is intense but also

extremely organized.

People line up naturally everywhere.

Japanese people love lining up like for

restaurant stuff. They are very patient.

They wait for a long time. I personally

don't really like lining up. So this way

I try to you know do my planning if I

want to go somewhere go somewhere that

is not crowded or

uh you know book it online or do some

yeah some other things to avoid the

line.

Yeah, this city is crazy observing

millions of people every day without

collapsing.

>> This is not like a accidental. This is

part of Japanese culture and design and

they want to make it better. And then

this why in 20 26 based on like a

current a few years dealing with a lot

of tourism suddenly they want to make

things better.

Also another another big change in 2026

is how famous places feel like uh like I

said Shibuya, Sakusa, Kiara, Parajuku,

Kyoto, Osaka, these places are always

busy. So social media made these places

like a famous worldwide. Everyone wants

to go to the same place, take the same

photos, take the same videos, go to the

same street, eat the same food. But

Japan is much bigger than this. I think

there are a lot of other places, hidden

places, they offer the same quality,

even better. And then even though if you

go to this crowded places, you might you

might not get into what the place that

you wanted to, but if you go to like

some other places that is not that

crowded, I am sure you get can get more

uh enjoyable experience because you

don't have to deal with the stress and

crowd.

So this why if you come to Japan, you

just just keep going to like a Shinjuku,

Shibuya, Harajuku, you you get uh tired

much faster. You deal with rush, stress,

and yeah, all those stuff.

So yeah, my my opinion is yeah, Japan

has a lot of other places that they're

cool, they're beautiful, you can get the

same experience.

And also we at our tour, Smite tour, we

try to find those we explore, we are

doing like a live stream all over Japan,

all prefectures. We try to find out

unique places also you know to make sure

you know everybody at least our viewer

now about these popular places and

instead of going to just Kabuki you can

go to other prefectures night life

and some of them actually are more

interesting more Japanese more local

Oh yeah, another another another point I

want to mention is also culture wise

Japanese people are you know I think you

maybe you feel some different uh uh

thing as a traveler compared to back

then the principal are very polite and

respectful They help you, they thank you

for the if you buy something for your

service. But also that doesn't mean that

politeness doesn't mean you know uh they

are friend with you or now a lot of

people they have expectation

and compared to back then maybe they

because now it's too crowded everywhere.

So people don't really have that you

know

uh patient as it was before. now because

it's crowded. So you might see some uh

you know some you might get some

experience that you didn't expect.

So yeah, what I'm saying is the Japanese

people are really polite, very positive,

but that politeness does not always mean

openness. That's it.

And they keep personal distance for

sure.

All right, guys. I think uh that's it

about this video. I wanted to just share

my thoughts.