When Tokyo Disneyland was being proposed, the Japanese partners involved insisted the experience replicate that found at Disneyland in the United States.  Signs were to be in English; the employees, Americans.  Rides in Fantasyland and Adventureland had to recreate exactly what might have happened had the guest traveled to Los Angeles.

But there was the advantage: Japanese visitors didn't have to leave the relative safety of their home islands, to travel thousands of miles to an unfamiliar country, just to experience the Magic Kingdom.  This proved an especially important consideration for many Japanese individuals, the products of a cultural conditioning process that places great importance on the essential "uniqueness" of Japan and its culture. 

If Japan is to maintain its sense of identity, that sense of being set apart needs to persist as well -- and that, in turn, makes foreign travel especially daunting.  Unlike Americans who assume that everyone else is essentially the same as they are (whatever the reality of that supposition), Japanese who venture outside Japan face the prospect of being among people who MUST be different.

For these reasons, once Tokyo Disneyland set the pattern, other "foreign travel destinations" began to appear in Japan.  Huis ten Bois on the southernmost island of Kyushu recreated a Dutch environment; in fact it improved on the original -- the historic construction plans incorporated a palace garden never built in the Netherlands but included in the Japanese reproduction.

In Kurashiki -- where non-Japanese are attracted by a preserved historic district of white plastered, gray tiled townhouses -- Denmark's Tivoli Gardens has appeared as an attraction for the Japanese visitor.

Both facilities are remarkable for their authenticity, and Japanese flock to both for a taste of Dutch or Danish food, entertainment and culture.  But these sanitized experiences eliminate the realities of the larger context in which each exists in the original location.  Just as Disneyland is a part of the larger city of Los Angeles and the state of California, so Tivoli and Huis ten Bois are joined to Denmark and Holland in such an integrated way as to preclude knowing either without experiencing the "outside world" surrounding each.

Yet in many ways American tourists abroad who seek out the local McDonalds or who insist on staying at a Holiday Inn are also missing out on what a foreign context can add to the experience of another place. 

Just as contemporary Japan needs to be placed in a suitable historical context to aid understanding, so any particular cultural site needs to be physically located in the appropriate relationship to its "real life" surroundings (which also have to be observed as such during the visit) to give it life and meaning. 

Its never enough just to "see the sights" while blocking out the larger cultural and historical setting -- and that's what I have always seen my role as a Study Leader to be while in Japan: to help visitors recognize where they are and how it got to be what it is they have come to see and experience.  If I can accomplish that, I feel that I have helped build a bridge bringing the world into that person's life in a truly meaningful and fruitful way.