Much of Japan outside major city centers (downtown Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo) feels very empty – so empty that you feel like you're in a ghost town where all the houses and streets somehow still neatly maintained. I've had so many long, peaceful solo walks in Japan, all done by hopping from train station to train station – no car needed. And it doesn't have to somewhere in the Tohoku region only accessible if you drive several hours there. Even various towns in the Kansai region easily accessible by train can look surprisingly empty.
For example, take a 1-hour train ride from bustling Osaka/Kyoto to, say, Kameoka, Ayabe, the Wakayama valley just east of Wakayama-shi, or even Tenri just outside the Tenrikyo HQ, and walk around during a regular weekday. You might see only one person maybe every 20-40 minutes, often an ojisan tending to his backyard or taking a stroll. You can walk for an hour without seeing a single car driving by. Streets and shrines are all eerily empty.
I've been to dozens of countries, including southern European countries with severe rural depopulation, and nowhere else I have I seen such population density extremes as Japan. From train stations so crowded that you can barely move to countrysides/inaka so empty that you hardly see a single soul, and all it takes is a 1-2 hour train ride.
by Odd_Language_1988