This post is somewhat of a restart. In fact, my last post was almost 3.5 years ago! There we were, poised to reshape our Fuji house into a café, accommodation and Studio. All the prep was done, estimates made, we were ready to commit by signing the reconstruction permit on the dotted line. Then suddenly Covid hit! Tourism numbers plunged! Everyone was saying it was the end of the world. We backed off. When the risks are this high there should be no regrets. Fuji stood still like a phantom in the mist.
Hi, my expat friends call me “Ratty” but my other name is Rob Mathews. I’ve been living in Japan for more than twenty years and I’m still absolutely loving it. I’ve built a successful business from the ground up here and because my wife is Japanese my family ties to Fuji run deep.
I’m an Ex-tour guide, and now also a Surf Artist. My wife and I married at the Sengen Shrine at the foot of Mt Fuji prior to the year 2000. I’ve been returning to Fuji regularly almost every month since then to tend to our one hundred and sixty three year old EDO period house in the main street of Fujiyoshida town. I know the area intimately. The customs. The people. But I have my own unique Australian perspective, a passion for Surfing, Snowboarding and Skateboarding, access of which is all granted to me by this wonderful old house.
Fortunately our, Australian based, International Kindergarten business remained stable over those 3 long Covid years. Then as Covid began to dissipate, the yen started sliding and the tourists returned with a vengeance, the old days were back! This time I believe it’s more permanent. People are wiser now in terms of pandemics. I can’t see the government’s stance on a low yen changing anytime soon, so as far as I can tell, the tourists are here to stay. We are now ready to get the paper work out once more…
In a strange kind of way everything ever written about Japan prior to Covid can now be ignored. Well, perhaps not everything, but a fair bit of it. Covid certainly changed the face of tourism here during the course of the pandemic. Many, many small businesses that relied on tourists went under, so a lot of the stuff that was written about (and is still on the net) is just no longer there. Now new businesses are springing up everywhere that are, as yet, largely undiscovered because they haven’t been written about. Three years is a long time when the market dries up. Like jumping under a cold mountain waterfall, its well time to start afresh!
Currently a lot of Japan content on the net today just lightly covers the Japan travel hot spots. It’s the same old stuff getting rehashed over and over! This Blog is not such content. While I do cover the main places in and around Fuji, most of my content is about the people themselves, and what you will find off the beaten track. Japan is a fascinating place, mostly for how the people think and live out their lives and much of what is revealed in this regard is only on the surface. This blog aims to dig much deeper, to delve into the mysteries that lie deep below, and to poke a little fun at our own Aussie tendency to be totally ignorant as to what’s really there.
I’m not here to ruin your holiday (so please keep reading) but I am here to give you some of the amazing insights I’ve learnt from spending more than 20 years in the trenches. Interesting things indeed! So, get off the beaten track, notice the unnoticeable, those revealing moments at the beginning and end of contact between yourself and your Japanese hosts. The stage is set, the curtains drawn, you are the guest, they are the host, perfection! Now let’s dive below to find out what’s REALLY going on!
Some of my posts relate specifically to Surfing, Snowboarding, and Skateboarding in Japan (a reflection of my artwork, which I often refer to as “Culture Fusion”) but if you are not interested in these please just skip them as the bulk of my posts will be about local travel tips, the traditions and emotions of the people, and what lies just below the surface of regular daily life here.
Japan is undoubtably fascinating, more so because it has a profound ability to change us. Let’s face it, things, objects, cities and towns, such things are pretty much the same the world over. However, we don’t just come to see them, what’s the point? We come because we want to be moved. Changed. Altered in some profound way. That sneaking suspicion that coming to Japan will have this effect on us is correct. Zen is intuition. That’s Transformation!
If you want to prep yourself so that, when your trip finally begins-when you are actually in Japan, you can SEE more, understand more deeply, just WTF* thats going on, then please dear reader, do join me as I offload 20 years of self discovery (and frustration!) all in the name of entertainment.
*Watch The Fun!
Next Post: Reflections of Fuji: Who are the Japanese?