Comments by "XSportSeeker" (@XSpImmaLion) on "Why Kyoto Prohibits Bright Colours" video.

  1. Awesome, I love it! Also agreed that not the entire country should stick to rules like those, but more historical cities should think of urban planning like that all around the world, not just Japan. I knew there was some preservation effort in Kyoto so that it remained closer to it's roots, but I didn't know they took it this far... explains a lot. xD I also imagine that codes and rules like those are what makes even neighborhoods so distinct from each other in big cities, and at least in my eyes, it definitely pays off for a country that's becoming more and more touristic over the years - both internally and externally I mean. I'd be far more interested in visiting cities in my own country if there was such care about preserving the ambience, historical value and aesthetics in general of some of them. It's also quite the feat to enforce and maintain things that way in a city as big as Kyoto... I can imagine this being done in smaller cities and towns, but managing a city the size of Kyoto must require several layers of cooperation and true will to enforce stuff like that. The city I currently live in has a bit bigger population than Kyoto... around 500 thousand more people, it's a mid sized capital. There are some preservation efforts on the old part of downtown, but it's just done in a dumb way. It's mostly about the streets and pavement, which are just horrible. Paved with these slippery and hard stones that are just fall hazards whenever it rains, or even with it's not raining. It's less historical preservation and more like the mayor not wanting to invest and receiving kickbacks to maintain things as they are - namely old, useless and horrible. Meanwhile, decrepit old ugly buildings dominate the landscape, and there are no aesthetic restrictions to anything, so it just looks like a dirtier run down part of downtown instead. Next time I visit Kyoto I'll pay more attention and value how beautiful the place is even more... :D
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