The unhappy campers are those residents living downtown, especially those around major attractions such as the big temples, and Gion and Pontocho. Here, the press of humanity is unrelenting.

Normally in a new sector as wild and western as NEM and Bitcoin, especially after a half billion dollar heist at Coincheck, there would be a significant negative reaction by the Japanese financial authorities.

I'm writing this edition of my Tourist Take from Sydney, Australia. Three weeks ago I was approached by Liberta Inc's CEO, Keijiro Sawano, to assist with a regional revitalization initiative called Heartland.

The couple Jack Bayles and Fay Chen have been instrumental in helping Japanese discover organic and healthy foods even as the nation forgets its own heritage and takes on a Western diet.

The Japan Tourism Agency (JTA) had more good news to share last week, when they announced that Japan had attracted 28,961,000 foreign travelers in calendar year 2017, up 19.3% on 2016. They spent a record JPY4.416trn (US$40bn).

How did we do with our 2017 picks? We got one right (Trump and a business pickup in his first year), two wrong (Inbound tourism is still pumping, and Toyota is not doing anything notable in Electric Vehicles yet), and two others still developing.

For a foreign customer who doesn't know the JTB name, it's a surprise when the Japanese web site suddenly demands a pre-payment and often with severe penalties.

As non-Japanese living here, with the high profile that comes from being different, we can play a pivotal role in helping to make things better. We can even build a business around being civic-minded residents.

I took a second look at the view and realized he was right, there was trash everywhere, particularly white plastic shopping bags, food and chemicals containers, bottles, and pretty much everything in between.

Our advice is to get your Work Rules in place as soon as possible after establishment and NOT to wait until the tenth employee is hired. The reason for this is that it is FAR easier to negotiate with 1-2 early employees than it is with 10 or more.