Nipponica

You can pretty much assume what 90% of the first-time visitor's itinerary to Japan is going to be. They are going to spend some days in modern Tokyo, probably take a day trip to the Great Buddha at Kamakura, then take a bullet train to temple-y Kyoto, and if time permits, take a side trip to ancient Nara or take Instagram photos of the Torii in the sea near Hiroshima. You know the picture. All of that is pretty much a given, and the only variety in many trips is likely to be whether there is also an excursion to somewhere like Nikko (home of the Three Wise Monkeys) or Hiroshima (lest we forget) or very occasionally some places further beyond (mountain spa onsen, check), especially if there happens to have been a recent travel feature about it in the New York Times.

Why is it that visitors to Japan have such a concentrated, predictable itinerary when visitors to France are fanning out in every direction from Normandy to the Dordogne or Provence?

As a totally selfish person, I very much welcome the tourists to continue to stay on the Tokyo-Kyoto path and stay away from my part of Japan.