Oliver Dunskus is a German national who spends most of his year being a marketing manager. However, he has an atypical hobby: spending a few weeks each year walking the most famous pilgrimage of Japan, on Shikoku island. Noticing the lack of practical guidebooks for western pilgrims, he wrote and released the first Shikoku pilgrimage…
Life Lessons from Living and Working in Japan: An Interview with Kokoro Media Editor-in-Chief Amélie Geeraert
I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Amélie Geeraert, Kokoro Media editor-in-chief, ever since we started producing articles and building brands for combrains, the parent company of Kokoro Media, in 2018. Over the years, Amélie’s passion for Japan has inspired her to create some amazing articles including fascinating interviews with artists, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists from…
Japan to Your Table: An Interview with Kokoro Care Packages’ Aki Sugiyama
Aki Sugiyama and her business partner Lillian Rowlatt have founded Kokoro Care Packages, a unique subscription service that allows customers to be delivered different kinds of Japanese ingredients and food monthly or seasonally. When I first heard of this company, I was intrigued by our common choice for the word Kokoro in our respective brand…
TEAM Clapton, Renovating Japanese Houses the “Do-It-Together” Way
Akira Yamaguchi is one of the founding members of TEAM Clapton. This construction group does design, renovation, and builds event spaces. Their specialization: their construction sites are open to everybody who wants to help, beginners included. Last year, TEAM Clapton was involved in renovating a small traditional village, transforming it into a small lodging complex…
Teaching Japanese with Empathy and Precision: An Interview with Yuki Nivez
When it comes to learning Japanese, there are deceptively simple questions that most teachers struggle to answer. For example, “What is the difference between the particles wa and ga?” Or, ”Why is this word typed without kanji?” When I saw that Yuki Nivez, founder of Bow & Arrow Language, was succinctly answering some of these…
Caring for the Japanese Bears – A Talk with Nature Conservationist Eli Sooker
Eli Sooker is a New Zealand-born nature conservationist. After working for some time in his home country, he started exploring the world on his own and ended up living in Japan. There, he discovered aspects of Japanese nature which people do not often talk about. He also became involved in local bear conservation. In this…
The Challenges and Rewards of Japan’s Food and Beverage Industry: An Interview with GourmetPro’s Ugo Bataillard
Ugo Bataillard is committed to helping foreign brands discover the rewards of entering the Japanese food and beverage market. As CEO and co-founder of GourmetPro, he partnered with COO Vincent Nicol to form an exclusive network of local consultants to support international brands of all sizes. In this interview, Ugo and I discuss his entrepreneurial…
A Place to Fall in Love with Japanese Bamboo
Taro Wakayama is the owner of Wakayama Farm, an exceptional place in Utsunomiya. This city can be reached in one hour by Shinkansen from Tokyo. Despite the name having the word “farm,” this is the last carefully tended bamboo forest in Japan. A few years ago, it started welcoming visitors on its ground. Mr. Wakayama…
The Japanese Shugendo Religion: Going Back to One’s True Nature
Taichi Tani is a monk in a village in Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku Island. Although Shikoku is famous for its pilgrimage and numerous Shingon Buddhism temples, Mr. Tani’s temple is outside the pilgrimage route and from another tradition: Shugendo. Shugendo is a Japanese religion mixing Buddhism, Shinto, and Taoism. Ascetic training in the mountains is a central…
Teaching Japanese Kids about Healthy Food
Fumiko Ichimura is a nationally registered dietitian in Japan. She uses her knowledge about balanced meals in a primary school, where she makes the menus so that children grow healthy and learn to enjoy eating. I asked her about the effects of Japanese food on health, the changes in Japan’s eating habits, and teaching kids…