Atypical Adventures: What’s past is prologue

32 trips to Japan, thus far. The first was in 2009, the most recent in 2026. And I’ve set foot in all 47 prefectures.

I’ve had people ask if I have family there. Some would say in jest that I have a secret family there, a wife and children I keep in the shadows. Not so. No family, secret or otherwise, save for distant relations whose presence in Japan is of no account where my comings and goings are concerned. An immigration officer at Naha Airport, upon seeing the Japanese entry stamps carpeting the pages of my passport, asked if I was a tourist guide. Not so. My visits are all holidays, undertaken purely for personal pleasure. A local chap once expressed surprise at my frequent trips, remarking that I must be a rich man. Not so, though I very much wish that this were indeed the case. A friendly lady at a ticket office seemed gobsmacked when my having visited all 47 prefectures came out in conversation. Whether it’s the 32 or the 47 or both, the reaction has invariably been some species of incredulity, followed by some variant of reason-seeking. Family, work, wealth, what have you.

Why Japan? If it’s a simple answer you seek, I have none to give.

The transport infrastructure, trains in particular? How easy it is to transition from city to inaka and back? The fact that there is a museum for almost every niche interest one can possibly think of? The faceless automation? The trains? How the familiar coexists with the alien? How the intricacies of social nuance and relationship, often extremely difficult for someone of my disposition, can be reduced to formulae and templates that can be deployed to one’s advantage, especially with the ironclad defence of the outsider card? Have I mentioned the trains at all?

What is it that I seek in Japan? Evidently, I’ve exhausted the usual sights and tourist traps. Of late I’ve found myself consulting not the usual travel forums, but subreddits frequented by long-term residents. My travel style no longer dovetails with the usual expectations for the short-term visitor.

And what is that travel style exactly? I struggle to describe it. Perhaps I might sketch it out thus: characterised by novelty and spontaneity, but firmly grounded in the familiar and built upon rock-solid infrastructure. Innovation within bounds. Exploration within boundaries. The freedom to stumble, with the assurance of not falling too far.

So why do I visit Japan so often? What pushed me to visit every corner of the country, and then keep returning to see even more of it? This is what I hope to find out for myself, and with whatever shred of energy survives my being terribly burnt out, I endeavour to set these thoughts out in writing for any willing companion to peruse.