Much of Japan is like this, too. Take a look at the satellite images from Google Maps and you'll see that outside Tokyo, there's still loads of countryside. Japan's not a small place, and while its urban areas are dense and vast, they only cover a small fraction of the archipelago. Honshu alone is bigger than Great Britain, and Hokkaido is only slightly smaller than Ireland.
Do movies like Mononoke Hime (which is set in the distant past long before large-scale urbanization began) really belong in this trope, which appears to be concerned with the nearness of this countryside to modern-day cities?
I just went to Japan, and I'm seconding that plenty of Japan is still like this. Take the train from Nagoya to Takayama for instance and it's mainly small villages, rolling mountains, rivers, etc. It's actually very pretty.(I recommend listening to the Princess Mononoke soundtrack while you're in the train.) And I only travelled in a small area of Honshu.
Most of Europe is like this, quite honestly. Unless you're in a major city, you can drive for an hour or two and be in countryside, forest, heath, whatever. Just making the point that it's not all that fantastic, other than the particular striking beauty aspect that comes with the Ghibli handle.
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