I don't doubt that the Ardennes are packed with tourists. What I don't understand is why you suggest that places like the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park are not equally packed (proportionately or not). And I don't understand the necessity to compare hiking patterns with Europe. Why are you so sure that going hiking frequently is more prevalent in Europe? Or even in Belgium? It's just such a bizarre position to take. Surely not just because you see more people doing it in Belgium than you saw in Japan? If so, I think you know my answer by now - you should have got out of Tokyo more. And I still don't quite get what made you think that Japanese don't like nature in the first place?
No, you're right I didn't explore Belgium properly and just went from city to city. And I didn't know about the Wallonian countryside nor about the beech forests. But this too is exactly my point. It is very difficult to really get to know a total country from the city, especially when based in a capital city like Tokyo.
I think your comparison of Belgium and Tokyo is an odd one. I don't want to state the obvious but is it a fair comparison to compare the nature of a country and a city? Surely you should compare Japan and Belgium. However, no disrespect to you, but I suspect your knowledge would fall short outside of the Tokyo area.
Now I haven't read Mr.Kerr's book so I can't comment on the figure. It would be interesting to see how he got it and how reliable the information is though. From my perspective, I think he may have meant cities and large towns because of the rivers I've seen, I don't think his argument rings true. This was ten years ago, but I did walk every step of the way from the northern most tip of Hokkaido to the southern most tip of Kuyshu and I saw a lot of rivers - some of them actually without concrete. As I'm sure you're aware by now, I live in a national park and I can walk down to a navigable river which is both deep and wide and see no sign of concrete.
So I would go as far to say that an obscene amount of concrete is unfortunately used to 'protect' rivers in Japan, but not all of them. That would be a generalization too far, even for you, Sir
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