About Awami — Awami

Why this exists

I’d like people from other countries to come to Japan and end up liking it.

I’d like people here in Japan to read something and think — maybe I should go abroad for a bit.

And more than either of those: I’d like you to see your own country the way it looks from outside it, and come away liking it more than you did. That happens to me every time I fly home. It’s the best thing travelling does to a person, and it’s the hardest one to explain to someone who hasn’t felt it yet. So instead of explaining it, I write about ordinary mornings and small restaurants and hope it gets there sideways.

Mostly, I’d just like to end up talking to a lot of people. That’s genuinely most of it.

That’s what this is. A blog I made because of that.

What this is

Awami is an independent, one-person business based in Japan. It does three things:

Writing — travel notes, written in full in both English and Japanese. Published here first; most of them go up on note as well.
Trip conversations — free, one-to-one help planning a trip in Japan, for people who want a straight answer from someone who has actually walked the street in question. See Guide.
Small-batch resale — limited-edition pieces found abroad, listed one at a time. See Shop.

Who’s writing

I’m from Shiga, the quiet prefecture next to Kyoto, and I live near Tokyo now. I travel a lot, both for work and because I like it, and I’ve slowly worked out that what I actually enjoy is walking around a place with no plan and eating whatever’s in front of me.

One more honest thing, since it explains a fair bit of this site. Nearly everyone I work around does the same job I do, so nearly every conversation I have finds its way back to aircraft eventually. I got a bit tired of that. What I’d actually like is to talk to people who’ve lived completely different lives — younger than me, from somewhere that isn’t here, doing something I know nothing about. That’s a decent share of why this site exists at all.

I write everything twice because the two halves are aimed at different people. In English, most of what I want to say is “this ordinary place in Japan is better than you’d think”. In Japanese it’s closer to the opposite — go and look at somewhere that isn’t here. Same trip, pointed two ways.

My English is a work in progress. Bear with me.

Two kinds of story

🛫 From the cockpit — cities I reached because of the job, and what they looked like on foot.
🚶 On the ground — hometown streets, small restaurants, and trips with no itinerary.

They’re the same impulse pointed in two directions.

Independence

Awami is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or speaking for any airline, employer, or tourism board. Nothing here is an official statement by anyone but me. Where a piece involves a business — including my parents’ diner — I say so plainly in the piece itself.

なぜやってるか

外国から来た人に、日本を好きになって帰ってほしい。

日本の人にも、読んで「ちょっと外国に遊びに行こうかな」って思ってほしい。

それより何より、外の国から見た自分の国を、前より好きになってくれたらいいなと思う。自分が帰国するたびに毎回そうなるから。旅がその人にしてくれることの中でいちばん良いところで、まだ味わったことのない人にいちばん説明しづらいところでもある。だから説明するのはあきらめて、なんでもない朝と、小さな食堂のことを書いてます。それで横から届いたらいいなと思って。

あとはもう、たくさんの人と関わることができたらいいな、というのが正直いちばん大きい。

そんな思いで作ってみたブログです。

Awami について

日本を拠点にした、ひとりの個人事業です。やってることは3つ。

書くこと — 旅ノート。英語と日本語、両方とも省略なしで書いてます。 ここで公開して、たいていは note にも置いています
旅の相談 — 日本の旅程について1対1で話す。無料。実際にその道を歩いた人間から、まっすぐな答えがほしい人向け（Guide）
少量の物販 — 旅先で見つけた限定品を、1点ずつ（Shop）

滋賀の出身で、今は東京の近くに住んでいます。よく旅をします。予定を立てずに歩いて、目の前にあるものを食べるのがいちばん好きだと、だんだん分かってきました。

もうひとつ正直なことを書いておくと、このサイトがある理由の何割かはこれです。 周りが同じ仕事の人ばっかりで、話がだいたい飛行機になる。 それにちょっと飽きてしまって。ぜんぜん違う人生を歩いてきた人、若い人、文化の違う人と喋りたい。たぶんそれが本当のところです。

二回書いてるのは、英語と日本語で伝えたい相手が違うからです。英語で言いたいことの大半は「日本のなんでもない場所、思ってるよりいいですよ」。日本語で言いたいのはその逆で、「ここじゃないどこかを見に行こうよ」。同じ旅を、二方向に。

Awami はどの航空会社・勤務先・観光団体とも関係がなく、代弁もしていません。ここに書いてあるのは全部わたし個人の話です。