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YAMAGUCHI — The municipal government of Yamaguchi is gearing up to accommodate more international visitors after the city was selected as one of The New York Times’ 52 Places to Go in 2024. Expectations are high, but concerns are also popping up. In early April, about 20 tourists from Taiwan visited Saikotei, a traditional Japanese building founded in 1877.

It is a tourist facility in Yamaguchi which was previously a luxurious restaurant. A 32-year-old woman visiting the location was helped into a kimono and had her picture taken in the garden. "Yamaguchi is quiet and has a beautiful natural environment.



I really like it," she said with a smile. The city is known for its many tourist attractions, including a five-story pagoda in Rurikoji temple and the Yuda Onsen hot spring resort. But the article in The New York Times also introduced such little-known spots as pottery kilns and coffee shops local people have been fond of for many years.

Among them is Mizunoue Kiln, a pottery gallery-cum-atelier located on the grounds of Toshunji temple. Craig Mod, the writer who recommended Yamaguchi in the newspaper as the "Kyoto of the West," visited the kiln more than two years before, according to Gakuji Masui, the potter who runs the kiln. He said he was initially surprised that Yamaguchi was featured in the newspaper.

"Considering his perspective on travel, I understood why," Masui said. The American writer values places where a traveler can get a sense of the daily lives of people.

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