/jp/ - Otaku Culture

japanfag here. lived here 8 years in various parts and have traveled most of the country.

What >>13328691 said is true to an extent, but you have to remember that Tokyo is it's own thing. Tokyo's weird and un-Japanese even for the average Japanese person.

Smaller cities (circa 300,000ppl) are a nice mix of modern life and convenience but still have a "This is Japan" feel. It just differs slightly one place to the next. I lived in 1 such city and it's downtown area was insane, bars and shit everywhere. I lived in another city not very far, same population and it was way different. The only bar in that 2nd city would only get 4 people in it max. But the 2nd city felt more "Japanese".

I've just moved again to a small rural town and it feels exactly like what you'd imagine Japan to be like from anime set in the country (like OP's or say, Onegai Teacher or whatever) but to be brutally honest it's boring as fuck. The sense of community is stronger though but that's no different to country vs city life anywhere in the world.

tl;dr The big cities don't feel so Japanese but the country does. Country's boring though.